


Changing Tides

by wildestoftales



Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Alternate Universe - Royalty, M/M, Pirate!Nick, Prince!Louis, Tomlinshaw Fic Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-11
Updated: 2014-07-11
Packaged: 2018-02-08 11:23:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1939158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildestoftales/pseuds/wildestoftales
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis is the crown prince. Nick is the pirate captain who kidnaps him. Accidentally. Things only get more complicated from there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Changing Tides

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LookslikemynextMistake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LookslikemynextMistake/gifts).



> As you can see, I kinda messed up a little because I accidentally combined your first two prompts and only noticed when I had already written a good part of the story. I really hope you like it anyway because all your prompts were amazing.  
>    
> In other news, I feel like I owe my beta [Becky](http://archiveofourown.org/users/alovelytempest) part of my soul now. Without her, I probably would have ended up in a pool of my own tears instead of finishing this on time. Thank you for your encouragement, your patience, your corrections, and the hilarious comments making fun of my typos. You're the absolute best. All remaining typos/mistakes are my own!

“Merchant ship, about 200 metres ahead, portside!”

Niall's shout sounded across the ship's deck and interrupted Nick's and Liam’s discussion about their supplies. Nick's crew was experienced enough not to fall into blind panic and run to the ship's portside in order to see for themselves the ship Niall had spotted. Everyone just continued on their work. Liam calmly started packing up the papers that he and Nick had been talking about, then got up to clear them away.

Only Nick leapt to his feet immediately. He ran to the ship's bow, his jack russel terrier Puppy hot on his heels. He stepped on the small wooden step-up that had been set up there exactly for this purpose and pulled his spyglass out of his pocket.

It didn't take Nick long to find the relatively ordinary merchant ship that Niall had spotted from the crow's nest. It was of average size, unlikely to carry any weapons, and proudly displayed the green flag of a trading company. Nick knew that company as they had attacked them before, although he had not been the crew's captain back then; the company mostly sold tea and other products. He remembered them as being practically defenceless as well as as a profitable robbery.

He folded the spyglass back up before turning around to face his crew. Some were already watching him questioningly and waiting for orders. Puppy barked loudly.

“Hide the flag!” was Nick's first order towards Niall who had already climbed out of the crow's nest and was now sitting on top of their sails. He pulled a dirty white linen sheet out of the crow's nest that they used in case of surprise attacks to disguise their black pirate flag with a skull on it.

“Harry, pull the fin in, we have to go fast! Stan, hand out the weapons! Liam, organise the boarding crew!” Nick kept shouting more and more orders at his crew as he ran across the deck to get his own weapons.

“Get the hooks ready,” he shouted over his shoulder. They were already gathering way; Niall had obviously adjusted the sails and their steersman Paul navigated them easily towards the merchant ship.

“We're attacking from their starboard,” Nick explained to him while climbing the wooden stairs that lead to the rudder. Paul only nodded without averting his eyes from the ocean.

“Puppy, go below,” he sternly ordered his dog. Puppy didn't seem pleased with being sent away from all the excitement, but complied anyway.

Nick only just had enough time to secure one sword to his belt and grab his favourite sword before they were almost next to the merchant ship.

His crew had gotten the grappling hooks and boarding ladders ready. Liam had also organised about ten people who were to accompany Nick on the attack. The rest of the crew would stay on board and defend their ship in case of an attack by the merchant crew, although that was unlikely. Nick took a look at his heavily armed men who were crouching behind the vessel's side so they wouldn't be seen just yet. With confidence, Nick stood next to them and took a deep breath, before shouting as loud as he could: “Attack!”

All hell broke loose.

Nick's crew started their attack by throwing old wine bottles that were filled with gunpowder and set alight. Several fires broke out across the other ship's deck. The aggressive yelling of his men mixed with the startled and panicked shouts of the merchants. With the help of this distraction, the pirates managed to secure the grappling hooks and lay down wooden wedges to cross over the remaining distances between the two ships. It was Harry's task to block the attacked ship's rudder and so he was as always the first one to board it, Nick directly behind him. His men kept shouting and cursing the other seamen out. It was another simple strategy to frighten the crew that had likely not been in many battles.

One of Nick's men dropped a small bag filled with sulphur on one of the fires, causing it to quickly produce a thick yellow wall of smoke. Nick had trained his men to keep their eyes open against the smoke. Some of them had even covered their mouths and noses with linen as protection before boarding the ship. The seamen of the merchant ship were coughing loudly, stumbling through the smoke. Nick's crew fought their way across the deck which, luckily, wasn't very difficult; Nick hadn't even used one of his weapons yet. It was enough to simply shove the men out of the way.

After only a few seconds, the seamen seemed to have recovered. “Oil!” one of them shouted. Nick immediately knew what he meant: someone would pour oil over the deck in the hopes that the pirates would slip and fall. This wasn't their first attack, though. None of Nick's men were wearing shoes which made them much less likely to slip. Despite that, Nick could see Liam slip and go down beside him, but at least he took two of the other seamen to the ground with him.

“To the storage rooms!” Nick shouted at his crew. At that moment, a big, bearded seamen with a grim face attacked him. It didn't take Nick more than a simple punch to knock him out.

The reaction of the attacked crew to Nick's last order was strange; they started screaming at each other to “Protect him! Protect him with your life!” Almost every man – minus those that were caught in hand-to-hand fights with members of Nick's crew – ran over to the doors that led to the storage rooms and cabins beneath the deck. While Nick's men followed them and tried to fight their way through, Nick spotted Niall and signalled to him to follow Nick. They ran in the other direction and climbed the stairs to the rudder where the steersman was alone and trying to undo Harry's blocking on the rudder. Nick took him out with one well-aimed punch to the stomach.

“What are you doing here?!” Nick asked Niall. “You're supposed to command our ship while I'm gone!”

Niall just shrugged. “That's boring and you know it.”

They had this discussion almost every single time. Niall usually gave his role to Stan and joined the entering team. Nick didn't dive into the discussion any further.

“We're gonna jump and hold on to a porthole-,” Nick explained. He hadn't even finished his sentence when Niall ran up the ship's side and simply jumped. Nick followed him.

He let out a loud groan when he managed to hold on to an open porthole. His whole weight was now supported by his arms only and it _hurt_. Luckily, after only a moment of waiting Niall pulled him through the porthole and into the ship. Nick fell to the floor in a graceless heap.

The cabin they had entered was obviously the crew's sleeping quarters. As far as they could see, there was nothing but empty hammocks. Nick scrambled to get up and left the room through the only door, Niall hot on his heels.

Without thought, Nick turned right. They hadn't been running for long when a young man with dark hair and a determined expression stepped in their way. He was holding a short sword and blocked the only door. Not losing a single word, he immediately attacked Nick and Niall. Whatever he was guarding, it had to be important and probably expensive.

“You're not getting him!” he shouted as all three of them fell to the floor. Despite being quite a lot shorter than Nick and thinner than even Niall, he seemed skilled in hand-to-hand combat. After only a few seconds he and Niall were locked in a serious fight. Nick could already see blood. He trusted in Niall's capabilities, though, and crawled over to the door. Of course it was locked. Nick got up on his feet and threw his whole weight against the door. It didn't budge.

“No, you fucking-!” The guard pulled on Nick's clothes and his arm, but Nick managed to pull free. He repeated his former action and this time the door swung open with a bang. Nick stumbled into the room, clumsy with the force of his own momentum, and was surprised at the sight that met his eyes.

He had expected riches, lots of gold and maybe jewels. Possibly even a valuable silk export or something similar. What he had not been expecting was the captain's cabin and another young man who leapt off the bed and assumed an aggressive stance that screamed _‘ready to fight’_. He was short – shorter even than his guard at the door – and seemed a few years younger than Nick. The strange guy had eyes that were very blue and very angry. His clothes were noble and his light brown hair well-kept. He seemed aristocratic but his hands were balled up into fists.

“You don't even have a dagger,” Nick noticed surprised.

“For fuck's sake, not the time for talking, Nick!” Niall yelled breathlessly from the doorway. His fight with the guard seemed to still be going strong.

“What the-,” Niall's voice sounded again. Nick turned around. Niall was sitting on the guard's back, but the guy was still struggling desperately, so that Niall had problems holding his hands still. Blood was dripping slowly from Niall's forehead but he ignored it in favour of staring at the man still standing motionless next to the bed.

“That's the goddamn crown prince of England! Shit, what is going on?” Niall kept making confused noises, but in that moment his opponent managed to throw him off. Their fight started anew.

“You touch a hair on Prince Louis' head and I'll kill you! I'll kill you both, I'll set your whole crew on fire!” the guard threatened slightly manically.

Nick turned back around.

“You're Prince Louis?” he asked in the most disbelieving voice he could possibly manage. He didn't know much about the royal family, apart from the fact that they had two kids, an older son and future heir to the throne named Louis, and a younger boy by a few years named Anthony. Pictures, however, he had only seen of the king and the queen.

Prince Louis raised his chin as if looking down on Nick, despite being much shorter than him.

“Yes, I am. And you won't hurt me.”

Nick grinned widely and pulled one of his swords out.

“Sure,” he agreed, shrugging, and gave Prince Louis his nicest smile. “As long as you come with me without struggling.”

Prince Louis let out a weird shout that sounded like “Aaaay” and lunged at him, ignoring the fact that Nick was armed and he himself was defenceless.

It was no wonder, then, that Nick had a firm grip on the crown prince's arms after only a few moments. He was holding Prince Louis' hands behind his back so that he couldn't possibly move. Prince Louis let out a quiet whimper, but didn't scream, although Nick was fairly sure that he had almost dislocated his shoulder. By now, Niall had also managed to almost knock the guard out and win the fight.

Hastily, Nick used one hand to rip the fine linen on Prince Louis' bed apart. He ripped it into stripes that they used to bind the guard's hands together behind his back. Then Nick did the same to Prince Louis, while Niall carefully disarmed the guard. Prince Louis did not stop swearing in a way that was decidedly not very noble.

“We're taking him with us,” Nick said to Niall and gesticulated in the prince's direction. He still had a firm grip on Prince Louis. “We can ask for a ransom. The other one, we can leave here.”

The guard was lying on the floor, Niall sitting on his back once more. He began shouting at the same time as Prince Louis did.

“No!” The prince started struggling in earnest, forcing Nick to pull him closer to keep him still.

“Take him with you,” Prince Louis ordered, surprising them all.

Niall's eyebrows rose and he looked at Nick questioningly. Prince Louis looked between them and finally seemed to decide to talk to Niall who probably appeared more likely to be merciful.

“If you take me with you – fuck, you're gonna regret that, I promise, your life is basically over – but take Zayn with you, too! Come on! He's a good soldier, you'll probably get even more money.”

Nick laughed. He gave Prince Louis a shove towards the door.

“Why do you want us to take him, too? Are you scared to be alone with the big bad pirates?”

Niall pulled the soldier named Zayn to his feet. Zayn had gone quiet and limited himself to sending them hateful glances. The area around his left eye was blue and purple and swelling shut fast.

“I'm not scared of you, you asshole!” Prince Louis replied without missing a beat and kicked Nick on the shin. Nick only flinched before giving him another, harder shove.

“He's going to – my father's going to – listen, they'll hang Zayn if you leave him here! It was his order to protect me and -! Come on, two hostages are bound to be better than one, right? It makes sense! You're not idiots, are you?!”

Prince Louis was getting frantic. He stared at Nick with fire in his eyes and a look that demanded obedience, despite his jumbled words. Nick frowned and swallowed the answer that was on the tip of his tongue back down. After a moment, he turned to Niall, who was holding Zayn with both hands.

“We're taking him with us”, Nick said and pushed the crown prince out of the cabin's door.

~

Nick had been prepared to fight their way off the ship. Obviously, he had vastly underestimated his own crew. They had not only beaten the other crew and tied them to their mast or to each other, but had also carried most of the ship's supplies over to their own ship. To top it off, they had also destroyed their rudder and ripped parts of their sails.

“I'm so proud,” Nick said, pretending to be touched, as he passed Harry. Prince Louis was still struggling hard against him, but didn't stand a chance in their current position. Zayn was stubbornly quiet, letting Niall lead him on board their own ship with his head raised. Nick's whole crew began screaming at him or each other as they saw Nick lead Prince Louis onto their ship.

“Since when do we take hostages?” Liam asked as he followed Nick on board **.**

“Since the hostage is the fucking crown prince! And his body guard,” Niall answered for Nick. He laughed, seemingly without a reason. The adrenalin from a good battle always made Niall hyper and giggly.

Nick could hear Liam's shocked “He is who?” as he and Niall lead the hostages under deck.

“Where? Captain's cabin?” Niall suggested.

“Yep,” Nick affirmed. He gave Prince Louis a light shove. “Only the best for our noble guest.”

The captain's cabin was obviously the best cabin on the ship - a ship that Nick had once captured, although he had not been the captain back then. It was actually the only proper cabin as the rest of crew slept in two big storage rooms filled with hammocks. Nick slept there as well, because pirates didn't see a reason for why the captain should have it better than anyone else. So Nick got neither better nor more food nor did he get more than his fair share of the booty. Ever since capturing the vessel, they had used the captain's cabin for planning and organisation purposes or as storage for important documents (not that they had many of those). Sometimes a crew member would use the bed in it for a quick nap during the day when they couldn't find a quiet place anywhere else.

Nick almost began wondering about the missing protests from their hostages. Prince Louis and Zayn were quiet, only sharing grim looks when Nick and Niall led them to the captain's cabin that would be their holding place. As soon as Nick moved to push Prince Louis on the only bed, the silence was over.

“Stop touching me, you idiot,” he hissed like a particularly aggressive cat. “And Zayn as well,” he added after a moment's consideration. He sat down on the bed himself, albeit somewhat clumsily as he was still bound.

“I hope you're not too attached to your heads.” Prince Louis just kept talking. “Because they won't be sitting on your shoulders for much longer.”

“Lou”, Zayn interjected warningly. He stood next to Niall and took a calculating look around the cabin. Naturally, everything in it was made of wood, from the cluttered desk with the small stool in front of it to the bed on which Prince Louis was sitting. It would probably be too narrow for two people, but Nick was sure Zayn would let his prince have the bed.

Prince Louis kicked the bed with his heel.

“Yes, Lou, better be careful what you say,” Nick said mockingly.

“Don't call me that!” was the angry reply and the prince almost got up again. His balance, however, was so off due to the bonds that he only stumbled a bit before falling on the bed again. Niall chortled and earned himself a look that promised murder.

Nick sat down on the stool in front of the desk. His gaze settled on Zayn, examining him with scrutiny, before his calculating eyes settled more firmly on Prince Louis.

“Alright, not-Lou, why were you on a merchant ship?”

“Why did you kidnap us?” Louis retorted quickly.

Zayn took a few steps forwards until he was standing next to the bed. Niall shrugged and went to stand next to Nick.

“Isn't that obvious?” Nick asked back.

Prince Louis snorted. “What, your death wish? Yeah, that is pretty obvious. I mean, sure, your head's not the prettiest, but wanting to get rid of it does seem a bit extreme.”

Zayn shot him a warning glance that said: 'Stop provoking the pirates' that went ignored. Both Nick and Niall laughed, amused.

“Thanks for the compliment, princess. Why weren't you transported with a big, intimidating military ship? Or a whole armada? Surely that would fit your status better, hm? Or did you two run away from home secretly?”

 “No, you absolute fucking idiot, it was because -”

“Louis, shut up!” Zayn interrupted him before Prince Louis was able to finish his answer. He went quiet immediately, but was still bristling with anger.

After a few seconds of silence, Nick gave up for now. He clapped his hands loudly.

“Alright. As nice as this little get-together is, I've got important things to do. Captain's business and such, you know the drill,” Nick said and stood back up. He opened a small dresser's drawer and took out the false bottom of it. Normally they only fought with swords and the like because pistols were rather rare and extremely expensive. Nick took out a small gun that they kept in case of need. He handed it to Niall together with the key to the cabin.

“You're on first watch. I'll send Harry by later to replace you.”

~

When Nick arrived back on deck, Puppy came running in his direction, barking loudly. The counsel had already assembled.

The counsel was made up of all the crew members, apart from Niall, for now, as he was still with their hostages. It gathered to make all the important decisions on board. Nick only got absolute authority in battles and other extreme situations. Everything else was decided on democratically (although at times the person who won the discussion would be the one who shouted the loudest, which was often Niall and sometimes Nick).

Everyone that could be spared from work had gathered in the middle of the deck, near the mast, in a circle. The other crew members, who still had to work to keep the ship going, were mostly still close enough, at the rudder or the sails, to hear what was being discussed.

Liam waved Nick closer. He was Nick's first mate and responsible for bringing the crew's concerns to their captain.

“What's this about? Did someone drink too much wine again? Harry, I told you to get it together last time.” Nick dropped to the floor next to Harry who rolled his eyes a little, grinned widely, and pulled Puppy onto his lap. Harry loved the dog dearly, even though she didn't always reciprocate those affections.

“Why did you kidnap the crown prince?” Liam asked in his most serious voice. “We're not like that... this is way too big for us! We only do this to survive. We'll hang for this!”

A few crew members mumbled their assent but Nick could also see Stan and a few others pull faces in the face of Liam's dramatic outburst.

“Well, we'll hang for being pirates anyway,” Josh said and leaned back against the mast. Nick clicked his fingers in Josh's direction in an approving manner.

“True! It's not like we have much to lose!”

That didn’t make Liam look less worried.

“It was a spontaneous reaction, alright? I didn't even recognise him, at first. I would've imagined the crown prince to be a bit more...princely. He's more like a very small, angry dog.”

“But he's very pretty,” Harry added.

“Yeah,” Nick said thoughtfully. “Pretty but furious. Well, that's kind of understandable, though, what with the whole ‘being held hostage’ situation. Aaaanyway,” Nick changed the topic when Liam started to look even more desperate. “I just thought, hey, we can probably press for a lot of money! So we took him with us. And he was pleading us to take his bodyguard as well, so we took him, too. His name's Zayn, if anyone cares.”

A discussion broke out. Some of the pirates were of Liam's opinion; their main argument was that the whole endeavour was too dangerous and “we can't just blackmail the  _royal family_ , Grimmy!” Some of the others thought like Nick: they wanted to use this opportunity to its fullest. They also argued that it was “too late now, anyway, we have him on board already. We can't just leave him somewhere and be like, oops, sorry, our mistake. Here, have him back, no hard feelings, yeah?”

In the end they decided via vote that Nick was ultimately right. They had the prince on board now, they should at least make the best out of it.

Harry laughed, held Puppy up to his face and said: “Go hard or go home, that's what I always say!"

Nick gave him a look. “You have literally never said that, Harold. Not even once.” A few of the men laughed, Harry included.

Liam gave a heavy sigh, but surrendered to the majority in the end.

“Yeah, okay. But we'll treat them well, yeah? And Grimmy, show me that blackmail letter before you send it to the palace, please.”

“Of course, my dear Liam.” Nick put an arm around Liam's shoulders and smiled at him. “It's gonna be alright, don't worry so much.”

~

In spite of the popular opinion about pirates and especially their captains, Nick liked to think that he was not actually a bad person in general. Sure, he took the laws more as a kind of recommendation than as what they really were and his life would probably end in a very public hanging, but all in all he was good-natured. He treated his crew not only well but also as equals and even his hostages received good food and were not mistreated in any way.

So when Harry returned from his watching shift a few days later, looking pained, and telling Nick that “Louis is seasick. He's feeling awful”, Nick immediately made his way to the captain's cabin to take a look at the situation himself. Well, not immediately. First, he finished his card game with Stan (he lost spectacularly) and then he made his way to the cabin. Josh was sitting leaning against the wall opposite the closed door and seemed to be guarding it. Nick frowned at him.

 “I thought it’s Niall's shift now?”

 Josh shrugged. “It is, but he's inside, having a chat with them instead of guarding the door properly.”

Nick wasn't even surprised anymore that Niall preferred making merry with their hostages instead of watching them. He opened the unlocked door and took a step in.

Niall and Zayn were sitting on the floor and seemed to be talking about something very animatedly. The skin around Zayn's eye was still very dark, but the swelling seemed to have gone down.

Nick sent Niall a questioning look, but only received a wide grin and a “Did you know that Zayn has been in the Caribbean before? So cool! Why aren't we pirating around there like all the other pirates?” in return.

Only now Nick spotted Prince Louis who was sitting bent over, holding a bucket close to his chest. Nick didn't want to know whether it was empty or not. Prince Louis' face was much paler than when he had last seen him. His forehead seemed sweaty as hair had stuck to it. He gave a small groan when the ship rocked ever so slightly to the side.

“We don't do that because I can't stand the Caribbean,” Nick replied distractedly. Prince Louis' head shot up and he gave another, much louder groan.

“Oh hell, fuckface is back.” After a moment of silence, he added: “I had high hopes that you had already drowned or something.”

Taking a few steps in Prince Louis' direction, Nick didn't take his eyes off of him.

“I've been on ships for more than ten years now and I can probably swim better than anyone you've ever met. Sorry, duck, no hope there.”

“Will you ever stop with the stupid nicknames?” Prince Louis asked.

When Nick took another step closer and reached out for the bucket, Zayn shot to his feet and towards him.

“What are you doing?” he asked loudly and aggressively, but Niall reacted fast and pulled him back.

“I'm taking him outside to get a bit of fresh air, so he'll hopefully stop throwing up sometime soon”, Nick replied calmly.

Zayn's composure seemed to relax slightly.

“I'm coming with”, he said resolutely.

Nick laughed. “Definitely not. You're staying here.”

It seemed as if Zayn was going to protest further, but Prince Louis interjected before he could: “It's okay. I'm not scared of this idiot.” He put the thankfully empty bucket down next to the bed and got up to his feet, swaying a little. When Nick took a hold of one of his arms to steady him, he received an annoyed look, but Prince Louis didn't shake him off.

Taking slow and careful steps, Nick guided him out of the cabin and towards the deck. Prince Louis kept swaying while walking and after a while Nick simply put his arm around his waist. Prince Louis jerked a little, but didn't pull back.

“Don't worry, your virtue is safe. I just don't wanna have to pick you back up when you collapse.”

Prince Louis rolled his eyes. “Do you have any idea how annoying you are? Do you actively work on being as annoying as humanly possible?”

Nick laughed and helped him up the few stairs that led to the deck.

“What makes you think talking to your kidnapper like that is a good idea? I'm a dangerous pirate, after all.”

Using Nick's shoulder to hold on, Prince Louis took a wary look around. The crew was working as usual; the wind was favourable and at the moment their only goal was not to be recognised as pirates and to stay as far away from normal navy routes as possible. Liam was working on some papers again while Harry was climbing one of the sails, probably to mend something on them. Paul was standing at the rudder and gave Nick a small nod. No one reacted to Prince Louis' arrival on deck in any special way. He probably wasn't used to that.

“Because I'm not scared of you”, he answered belatedly.

Nick led him to the ship's side and let him go so he could lean on the side of it. Prince Louis crossed his arms on the railing and leaned forward until he could drop his head on it. He moaned quietly.

“Did you get this seasick on the merchant ship, too? Does this happen every time?”

Prince Louis shrugged very, very slowly. “No, not every time. Just a bit in the beginning. It's probably because you sail like mad men.”

Nick didn't try to suppress his laughter. Paul was the calmest steersman he had ever met and the wind wasn't particularly vicious at the moment. But in the end Louis was the crown prince, it was probably to be expected that he was at least a little bit spoilt.

“Whatever you say, landlubber.”

“Urgh, you're so annoying. What were you thinking? Did someone tell you I was feeling ill and you decided to come by and show me your face just to make sure I'd really get sick?”

They hit a bigger wave at a bad angle and the ship shook a little. Nick gave him a few tentative pats on the back when he gasped for air. For a short moment, he left his hand there, right between Prince Louis' shoulder blades, then he pulled it back.

“You're pretty snappish.”

“If I could bite you, I would. Believe me, I would.”

Nick laughed again. “I don't doubt that for a second, princess.” Only now, he leaned forward, too, to take a lookout over the sea.

“This nickname thing is really stupid. Do you do that to everyone?” Prince Louis asked in a rough voice. Nick looked over at him. His eyes were closed, his eyebrows drawn together, and his jaw clenched.

“No, only to princes who get all worked up over it.”

He didn't get an answer for a while. Prince Louis seemed to concentrate on breathing deeply and calmly as if he was trying to calm his body that way, too.

“Why were you on a merchant ship?” Nick asked finally. “You didn't really run away from home, did you?”

Prince Louis scoffed. “Don't be an idiot. I had to go to...uhh, I'm not sure, actually. France, I think? As a state visit. But the Spanish heard of it and wanted to attack the royal navy. So someone had the brilliant idea of me travelling incognito.” He opened his eyes and looked directly at Nick. His eyes were very blue. “As you can see, it worked out perfectly.”

“To be fair, we didn't know you were on that ship. We just wanted booty.”

Prince Louis raised one eyebrow. “That really just makes it worse.”

They fell into silence. After a long while, Prince Louis slowly lowered himself to the floor, sitting with his back against the ship's side. Nick just looked down at him. His eyes were closed and he was tilting his head back. Eventually, he stopped groaning every few seconds and his features relaxed a little. He also opened his fists again. Of course Prince Louis was still very pale, but he seemed to not be seconds away from vomiting anymore.

“Alright?” Nick asked finally.

“Fuck off,” Prince Louis murmured back.

In that moment, Puppy came bouncing from her resting place next to the mast and started sniffing Louis' legs until he opened his eyes to look down on her.

“A dog,” he said, obviously trying to hide the small smile on his face.

“That's Puppy,” Nick introduced her just as Puppy licked over Louis' hand. “She's a real pirate dog.”

“Condolences that you have to put up with him,” he said to the dog and gestured vaguely in Nick's direction. He let his other hand rest on Puppy's spotted back. “And for the stupid name that he gave you.”

Nick gave him have a few more minutes before crouching down next to him and Puppy. “Have you already eaten today, princess?” Of course they gave Louis and Zayn enough to eat but Nick had seen an untouched portion on the desk and somehow he doubted that it had been Zayn who left it there.

Louis shook his head.

“Come on, we'll get you something, then."

The answer he got was an annoyed grimace.

“Seriously. Do you have a desire to see me throw up? Stop talking about food, I don't want anything.”

“I have a desire not to see you starve on my watch.”

They bickered for a while, but in the end Nick managed to convince him to get a piece of bread at least. Together they walked to the storage rooms. Louis kept tearing small pieces off the bread and trying to sneak them to Puppy, who was following their every step. After Nick had sent Puppy away, he finally started reluctantly eating the bread himself.

“I hope I truly get sick and can vomit all over your feet”, Louis said dreamily when they arrived back at the cabin's door. Josh looked over at them, startled.

“You have some weird kinks, duck,” Nick replied simply and opened the door.

Louis blushed and almost choked on the last piece of bread. Nick was so amused that he pushed him through the open door towards Zayn and Niall and closed the door in his face again without another word. Grinning, he made his way back on deck.

~

Nick hated boredom. For him there was nothing worse than having a never changing routine. It was part of the reason why he had become a pirate in the first place – there was always something new to experience and almost every day was a small adventure.

It was no wonder, then, that he went to visit the cabin more and more. Their hostages were simply the most interesting thing on board right now. As much as he liked his crew and as exciting as they were, Prince Louis was a lot more exciting. He got angry so easily – and he looked so pretty when he got worked up over something Nick had said – and even more so when Nick was near. He was funny in his anger, witty and fast with his responses. To visit him and Zayn was, simply put, entertaining. So when Nick pushed the door open for the third time within a single week, Louis didn't even look up but kept lying on his stomach and yawned.

“Your hair is stupid,” he said.

Nick kicked the door closed and nodded at Liam who was sitting on the small stool and looking serious. In contrast to Harry and Niall who had the most shifts, he wasn't close to the hostages yet. Only yesterday Nick had come in to find, there was no other way to put this, Niall and Zayn cuddling on the bed.

“My hair is a work of art,” Nick replied and sat down in front of Louis on the floor. He watched him open his eyes and wrinkle his nose. Zayn was lying on the bed and seemed to be fast asleep.

“When will you stop lying to yourself?” Louis asked in a dramatic voice. Nick touched his cheek with his naked foot. Louis pretended to bite him.

“They're awful. What is that even supposed to be, why are they so high? Are you trying to deny being curly? No one believes your lies.”

“You have a lot of feelings about my hair, duck.”

Nick looked away from Louis' face which he was scrunching up at the mention of his least favourite nickname towards Liam who was watching them awkwardly.

“You can go, if you want. I'll watch the monster and sleeping beauty over there.”

Liam nodded, smiled, and got up. “Goodbye, Prince Louis.”

“Bye, Lee-yum,” Louis replied with a grin and gave Liam a small wave as he walked out.

“Where was I?” he asked afterwards. “Oh yeah! Of course I have a lot of feelings about your hair. You're making me look at it all the time. But it's only negative feelings. Lots of anger, lots of hate.”

“If you say so,” Nick said agreeably and leaned against the closed door. “Why do you manage to be polite to Liam and even nice to Harry and Niall? They're keeping you here, too.”

“Well, first of all, I don't think Liam is keeping anyone anywhere. He still calls me Prince Louis, all polite, and he even does a little bow when he comes in every time. You’d never do that. And Niall is just...Niall,” Louis said as if that made perfect sense and maybe it did. “Harry gave me some of his food and I like his hair. You, on the other hand, are annoying with your dumb nicknames, and you're a useless pirate, too.” During his little speech Louis had pushed himself up into a sitting position.

“How would you know that? I managed to kidnap the crown prince and his bodyguard, after all.”

As if on cue, Zayn snored loudly.

“By accident! That was more luck than anything.” Louis gave Nick a long, inquiring look. He even tilted his head to the side a little as if considering something, and Nick immediately thought of three more animals Louis reminded him of.

“In fact, I could take you down right here and now,” Louis said finally.

Nick laughed loudly, surprised. “And then? My whole crew is on this ship and you don't even have a weapon.”

Louis shrugged. “I don't care, that's not what it's about. I  _could_ take you down.”  

Leaning forward a little, Nick risked losing a finger when he used it to tap Louis on the nose.

“Don't touch me”, Louis spit out immediately. He balled his hands into fists and opened them back up again, as if he was preparing to actually attack Nick.

“I've been doing this for a few years now. I'm also taller than you and you're a prince. What did you get trained for? Looking pretty and waving politely?”

Louis gave him a very wide and very dangerous grin that showed off his sharp, little teeth and made him look a little manic. His messed up hair only added to the image. He was still unbelievably and quite unnecessarily pretty.

“I could absolutely take you down”, he repeated self-confidently, but didn't move from his spot.

~

The following morning Nick was on his way to the cabin again, Puppy at his side, when Liam caught up to them, just as they had stepped off the deck.

“Have you already written the letter?”

Nick gave him a puzzled look, having been pulled out of his thoughts.

“What letter?” He was wondering how Louis would react if Nick was to touch his hair. Was Nick prepared to lose a hand in order to find out? Possibly. Having a hook for a hand really added a new level to that whole pirate chic.

“The letter asking for the ransom in exchange for Prince Louis and Zayn? You said you'd show it to me when it's done.”

Nick stopped walking for a moment, making Liam stop too, one step ahead of him. “Oh. Yeah, sure! It's totally already written out inside of my head.”

Liam shook his head, but seemed amused. Truth be told, Nick had not even started writing the letter. He had completely forgotten about the whole idea, which was weird, considering how often he went to visit their hostages.

“It'd be good if you could actually write it down, then. On paper. And then show it to me,” Liam said.

Nick nodded.

“Or we can write it together? I can't help you right now because I have my watching shift, but we could do it later and I'd...”

“Oh, it's your shift now?” Nick interrupted him. “I'll come with you, I was about to go see how they're doing, anyway.”

They stopped in front of the cabin's door. Liam seemed like he was going to add something, so Nick pushed the door open quickly. Louis, Zayn and Niall were sitting on the floor and seemed to be playing a card game.

“Cards are strictly prohibited on this ship,” Nick said in his most important voice and took a few steps in. Liam followed him together with Puppy and then let the door fall closed.

“You're always playing cards with Stan,” Niall replied simply and dropped his cards on the floor in front of him in order to get up and stretch. Then he bent over again to pat Puppy's back. She immediately dropped onto her back and presented her belly for rubbing.

Nick didn't pay much attention to Niall's answer because Louis had scrunched up his face adorably upon first seeing him and then his look had kind of stuck to Nick. He hadn't even noticed the dog, although he usually made a point of greeting Puppy first and Nick second, if at all. He got up, too, and walked towards Nick.

“What the heck is that?” he asked and pointed accusingly at Nick's face. It took a moment for Nick to follow his train of thought to find what Louis really meant: Nick was wearing his fake eye patch today.

“It's an eye patch, Prince Louis. One could think you'd grown up under a rock instead of in the palace.”

“Why are you wearing an eye patch?” Louis asked. “That's stupid. You don't need it. I've seen both your eyes and they're perfectly fine!”

Nick had to take a step to the side so Niall could leave the cabin while grinning at him. Louis' eyes still hadn't left his face. Not even when Liam sat down next to Zayn and took up Niall's abandoned cards.

“Again, you have so many feelings about my appearance, I'm flattered.” Nick smiled widely and made a point of looking down on Louis, more than he actually needed to with their height difference.

Almost immediately Louis straightened up and raised his chin higher. “Lots of anger, lots of hate,” he said.

“If you really want to know, the eye patch has practical reasons. One of my eyes is already used to darkness when I go under deck,” Nick explained.

Zayn started laughing and shot them a quick look. “Yeah, that's bullshit.”

Louis nodded and grinned confidently. “You're under deck right now and you're still wearing it!"

As if he was trying to get rid of an annoying fly, Nick batted his hand in Zayn's direction. He was already ignoring them again and talking to Liam. They seemed to have started back on the game.

“Fine. I'm wearing it because I like it. Really adds to the whole pirate thing, don't you think? Gives it a certain authenticity,” Nick admitted and watched Louis start laughing. He was grinning so widely his eyes were nearly fully shut. Of course he was making fun of Nick right now, but it was infecting somehow, because Louis was actually holding his stomach while laughing. Nick smiled.

“You're the most useless pirate I know!” Louis finally managed to get out.

“How many pirates do you know, duck?” Nick asked back.

Louis wasn't about to be distracted, though. He walked towards Nick and got up on his toes to pull the eye patch off. He actually had to stand on his toes just to reach and that was... well. Nick swallowed drily. Louis was on the shorter side, it was perfectly normal.

Putting on the eye patch himself, Louis pushed up his hair a little and got up on his toes again to say in a ridiculous voice: “Look at me, I'm Nick, the most useless pirate captain there ever was! Look at me and my dumb eye patch and my dumb tights!”

Nick looked down on his legs. He wasn't wearing tights, those were very tight, white trousers. He could move easily in them! Also, he liked how they looked.

Meanwhile, Louis wasn't stopping with his Nick parody. He walked right between Liam and Zayn, stepping on their cards, and kept talking nonsense about Nick being unnecessarily tall.

While Zayn grinned freely, Liam seemed to try and suppress a laugh. When Louis stalked back over to Nick, he grabbed him by the waist and pulled him towards himself.

“Alright, you've had enough fun, princess.”

Louis was only fighting him half-heartedly when Nick pulled the eye patch off and tossed it in the general direction of the bed.

“You think you're so funny,” Nick said and let go of Louis, who stayed right where he was, boldly grinning up at Nick.

“Just like you. Except, I'm actually hilarious and you're not.”

Nick's eye roll was only answered with an even more satisfied grin. Louis went to the bed and picked Nick's eye patch back up again. At his questioning look, he just said: “I'm gonna burn it as soon as I can! Or maybe I'll just throw it in the sea. Anyway, you're not getting this back.” After a moment's consideration, he added: “And now come over here and let me destroy you at a card game.”

~

Niall had seemed anxious and uneasy all evening. Again and again he had climbed up to the crow's nest, only to come back down again immediately. Even Puppy had at some point tried to cuddle up to his legs to calm him, but Niall had only pushed her away softly to climb the nest. Again.

Finally, Nick stopped Niall in his tracks by grabbing his shoulder, though Niall’s hands were already on the rope to pull himself up.

“What is it?” he asked in a deliberately calm voice. It didn't take Niall long to understand what he was asking.

“I think a storm's coming.”

Nick tilted his head back until he could see the sky. As far as he could see it was so clear and blue that it was almost blinding. The sun was shining and Nick's arm had already started burning a little, despite the fact that he spent most of his life outside and should be used to the sun by now. There were only a few clouds, and those were of the fluffy and white kind.

Then again, Nick had no expertise when it came to predicting the weather. Although it was important knowledge as a pirate, Nick had never quite mastered it. He could determine the wind direction and left the rest to his vastly more skilled crew.

He asked, anyway. “Are you sure?”

Niall frowned for just a moment before laughing loudly and amusedly. It didn't do anything to calm Nick who had known Niall long and well enough to know that laughing was a defence mechanism of his.

“I think so, yeah. But I don't know. Let's hope I'm wrong, yeah?”

Nick did hope, but Niall didn't turn out to be wrong.

There were at least one or two hours left until sunset when the sky went grey, then dark grey, and then black. The rain started out as thick, single drops which splashed onto the wooden planks underneath their feet. After a few minutes they turned into long, seemingly never ending lines, slashing onto their skin. It was deathly silent on the ship as the storm slowly got worse and it got darker and darker. There were only the sounds of the harsh rain, the loud wind which was steadily getting stronger, and the hasty steps of the men who were running around, trying to prepare the ship to the best of their abilities. They were putting away everything they couldn't tie to the ship itself. Thicker ropes were brought out and tied to the sails in order to keep control over them in the wind. Nick also made the decision that Paul needed help in keeping the rudder calm and sent Stan to him. The waves kept getting taller and more and more men had to hold onto the ship's side in order not to trip and fall.

The first flash of lightning brightened the scene unfolding on the ship and every man was staring in the same direction, watching the sea, illuminated for just a moment. Nick had only just started counting under his breath “One, two, three” when thunder followed the lightning, loud, close, and forbidding.

The ship gave a sudden jerk and at least half the crew fell down. Only now it started getting really loud, with the wind whipping in their faces relentlessly and their arms and legs and faces attacked by the salty sea water constantly, making it hard to keep their eyes open. The ship was swaying and leaning dangerously close to the portside. For one absurd moment Nick was only glad Puppy was easily frightened and had run back under deck at the first few rain drops.

“Starboard!” Liam shouted over the noise and most of the men scrambled to the ship's other side to balance them out. Nick kept one arm raised and in front of his face to protect it from the water as he stumbled over to the sails. He took hold of one of the ropes that Harry was holding already and pulled it back with his whole weight. The sail reared up as it tried to get loose in the wind, but the men simply refused to let it, holding onto the ropes with all their might. Suddenly, the ship fell – they had gone over a tall wave and were now on the other side of it, crashing down onto the sea again. None of them managed to keep standing, but in the blink of an eye, they were all upright again. The water that hit them this time went twice as high as Nick was tall. It was cold as ice, but Nick barely felt it. Some parts of his body had turned numb, others were burning with pain.

When he spotted Liam running by again, Nick raised his voice against the wind. “Liam! Liam!”

It took a moment for the sound to travel to Liam and for him to turn around and hurry back over to Nick.

Nick used his inner elbow to wipe the water off his forehead, ignoring that it was a futile effort. He fixed Liam with a serious look.

“Get Louis and Zayn out of the cabin. Get them on deck. I don't care if you have to tie them to the ship so they won't fall off, just get them out of there!” Nick couldn't help but worry that they might drown in their cabin without anyone noticing. The porthole was open, after all, while the door was probably firmly locked, so that water could easily get in but not back out. He had to have Louis – and Zayn and his whole crew – in his line of sight.

Liam nodded earnestly before turning away without another word. Harry turned his head back to Nick and gave him a wild grin. His dark hair kept whipping into his face and surely stealing the rest of the sight he still had despite the rain.

“I feel so alive!” he yelled loudly and let out a laugh that sounded more like a bark. At the same time they all stumbled a few steps forwards when an especially strong gust pushed the sail away from them. Someone to Nick's right groaned in pain but he didn't see anyone falling.

It seemed to go on like that forever, only getting worse. The skin on Nick's hands was ripped open, the blood only making it harder to hold onto the rope, but he didn't let go. Although it must have been impossible, the sky kept getting darker. It was black by now, only interrupted by flashes of lightning, followed by loud thunder.

On the inside Nick was praying to all the Gods he didn't believe in that none of the flashes would hit the ship, that all his men would come out of this unscathed.

Someone grabbed Nick's shoulder and pulled him away forcefully. He stumbled back a few steps and ended up next to a completely wet Zayn who had taken the rope from him and was now standing where Nick had stood before.

Harry turned around again and laughed.

“Zayn! I'd high-five you, but I'm kinda busy right now.” The sail pulled them all forwards yet again. Nick turned away from the sails and the rows of men holding onto it and barely managed not to crash into Louis. He was wet from head to toe, too, and looked strangely small in the way he stood with his feet far apart in order not to fall over from the force of the wind or the water. Again, his face was very pale and he looked close to vomiting. Nick knew Louis had never spent any significant amount of time at sea, so while such a storm was still nerve-racking for Nick, it must have felt like the apocalypse to Louis.

Nick didn't give himself time to ponder, instead grabbing Louis by the waist and pulling him over to the steps that led to the rudder.

“Sit down and hold on! Hold on really tight!” he shouted almost directly in Louis' ear. Louis frowned reluctantly and stumbled against Nick's arm when he lost his concentration for a moment. When Nick went to push Louis down on the floor next to the steps, Louis broke free of his grip and took a step back.

His hands were balled into fists and he gave Nick a determined look before he said as loud as he could: “I wanna help! What do I have to do?”

For a very long moment, Nick couldn't breathe. He could only stare at the crown prince whose face showed nothing but fear, who kept swaying to the side in the strong wind, and who looked like he was about to keel over. His eyes burnt with determination. Water hit both of them and pulled Nick out of his stupor. He gripped Louis' upper arm tight and pulled him to the stairs again.

“Crouch!” he instructed and made himself so small that he was almost crawling up the stairs. When they reached the top of them, he pulled Louis back to his feet again and together they made their way over to the rudder.

“You have to the hit the waves in an angle of-”

Paul interrupted Nick without looking at him. “I know how to steer a ship.” With Stan's help, he was trying hard to hold the rudder in a steady position when it tried to give in to the waves. Louis was at Stan's side and holding onto the rudder, too, before Nick got the chance to instruct him to do exactly that. The steering became easier instantly.

“Look out for him!” Nick shouted at Paul before turning back around. Paul didn't answer, but he hadn't expected him to.

Nick hadn't even made it halfway down the stairs when Louis' voice stopped him.

“Nick!”

Louis' hair was sticking to his forehead, much like anyone else's, and it was so dark that it almost seemed black. He nodded towards the sail with a worried expression. “Could it be that- I think it's ripping!”

It took a moment until Nick had processed Louis' words, then he turned back around so fast that he almost felt dizzy. At the very top of the sail, near the crow's nest, a small rip was showing, but it was becoming bigger by the second.

Nick hurried down the stairs so fast that he fell the last few steps and had to right himself again, before running towards his crew.

“Let go!” he screamed. “It's ripping, you have to give way!”

The men who heard him let go of the ropes immediately. It was enough to take the pressure of the sail and it turned sideways in the wind for a moment. The ship jumped forwards a little and a few men fell over. Nick was holding onto the ship's side and had managed to stay upright. He watched Zayn help Liam up and get back to the ropes so they could get the sail back under control again.

The storm seemed to last ages, but it had actually been only a little over an hour. When the rain and the wind became less harsh and the sky brightened up, Nick was already sitting with the injured men near the door that led downstairs. Harry made their way over to them and fell down without any grace, but with a loud groan, just as Nick was tending to Niall's bruised knee.

They didn't talk as Harry grabbed a cloth to wipe the blood off his hands. Nick's throat felt raw from shouting and his skin was red and raw wherever it had not been covered.

“Take a break,” Harry finally said and pushed Nick aside gently to take care of Niall's knee himself. Niall was lying on the floor, pressing his eyes closed in pain, but at least he wasn't unconscious.

Nick pulled himself up onto the ship's side and took a look at the sky. It was night by now, but the moon and the stars illuminated the ship. The storm had been severe, but faded fast.

He found Louis sitting on the second step of the stairs. His head was buried in his hands and he looked wet, tired, and dishevelled.

“Alright?” Nick asked in a rough voice.

Louis looked up.

“Have you seen Zayn?” he asked back immediately.

“Yeah, he was with the injured – just a case of bleeding hands and a small wound on his leg. He fell asleep while we were cleaning it.” Nick shrugged. “We figured we'd let him sleep.”

Louis' face twitched as if he had to smile, but didn't want to. He looked pale in the moonlight, but that could've been shock, too, or possibly sea sickness still. After a moment, he dragged a hand through his wet hair to push it away from his forehead, making it stand up a little.

“You look awful,” he said to Nick who laughed in response.

“Yeah, well, you're pulling off the drowned rat look quite well, too, love.”

Louis gave him an eyeroll in return. “I thought I was gonna be a drowned rat for real, before Liam showed up. The water in the cabin was already up to our knees and we only had our hands to get it back out.”

“In all honesty, you handled yourself well. I'm quite surprised you haven't gotten sick.” Nick had actually meant to say that Louis had been impressively brave, especially because he was the least experienced person on the vessel, and he had still done everything in his power to help. Of course he hadn't quite managed to get that across and Louis boxed against his upper arm.

“I'm gonna throw up on you before this over, just you wait.”

Suddenly Nick felt how cold and wet he really was. His toes seemed to be made of ice. He crossed his arms and remembered what “before this is over” really meant. He would have gotten his money and given Louis back and leave as a rich man. Or maybe he'd be hanging. No matter how it ended, one thing became painfully clear to Nick: he was Louis' kidnapper. Louis was a hostage on board and not just the unfairly pretty, brash, annoying passenger. Nick stood up.

“Do you always threaten people with your bodily fluids?” he asked without any tension behind it, before turning away and leaving as fast as he could without running.

~

After the storm Nick simply didn't send Louis and Zayn back to their cabin. He let Louis walk around freely on deck (Zayn was still asleep, someone had pushed him out of the way and put an old pillow under his head). Out of the corner of his eyes, Nick could see Louis give him doubtful looks every now and then. He seemed to be waiting for Nick to lock him up again.

“I mean, what difference does it make?” Nick asked Liam when he told him that they wouldn't be locked up anymore on the next day. “We're on a ship. They can hardly run away, unless they're going to jump into the sea. And they could've done that in the cabin, too. Also, there are only two of them, so they could never realistically attack us.”

Liam nodded seriously, but then broke out into a smile.

“Normally I'd say we have to ask the counsel, but...” He looked over to Louis who was sitting on the ship's side, obviously having a competition of who could pull the worst faces with Niall. “I don't think that'll be necessary. Or that you'll have to explain your decision to anyone.”

Nick didn't know what to answer and Liam seemed about to ask after the letter he still hadn't written. To distract him, Nick asked: “Should we do the auction now? There's stuff piling up from our last three raids.”

After frowning for a moment, Liam nodded agreeably.

“Good idea. Will you tell Niall? Then I'll get the booty. Only clothes today, right?”

Liam wandered off and Nick made his way over to Louis and Niall.

“Nialler! Always nice to see you taking your job so seriously,” he greeted him and gave him a pat on the shoulder. Niall only laughed and threw an amused eyeroll in Louis' direction. Louis laughed, too, for a moment, before giving Nick an annoyed look.

“We're going to auction off the piled up clothes now, you wanna do it?” Niall jumped off the ship's side and gave Nick an exaggerated thumbs up.

“Sure! Where are they?”

“Liam is getting them out of the storage rooms. You can help him.”

Without another word Niall followed in the direction Liam had gone off to only moments ago. He loved being the auctioneer and since no one else really wanted to do it, Niall got the job every time.

Nick leaned against the ship's side next to where Louis was sitting.

“You shouldn't be sitting on that,” Nick said. “We don't want our princess to fall into the water.”

Louis rolled his eyes, albeit not in the playful way that Niall had done earlier, but more in an annoyed, yet amused way. It seemed to be his standard emotion for whenever Nick was around.

“At least I'd get rid of you, then. Niall was sitting here, too!”

In defiance of Nick, Louis leaned back a bit farther. Nick raised his eyebrows and couldn't help but grin a little.

“Niall has been on this ship since he was fourteen. You, on the other hand, get seasick.”

Since Louis truly didn't know what respect was, he hit Nick's shoulder. If Nick were to say he wasn't infinitely amused by Louis' defiance, he'd be lying.

“Not anymore!” Louis forgot where he was sitting for a moment and crossed his arms. His upper body swayed forth and back for a few seconds, his eyes wide, and he hastily grabbed onto the wood beneath him again. Nick was a little faster, though, and had already grabbed his arm.

“Come down,” he ordered.

Louis pushed Nick away. “No.” He turned his head to watch Liam and Niall get back on deck with their arms full of piles of clothes. They carried them up the stairs to the rudder where they simply dropped them into a giant pile.

“What did you mean by auctioning off the piled up clothes?” Louis asked unexpectedly.

His eyes were still firmly locked on Liam and Niall when Nick watched the side of his face. He was about to answer, when Zayn joined them, standing on Louis' other side now.

“What's going on there?” he asked.

“It's part of the booty. Those are the clothes we managed to steal during our last few raids. We're going to auction them off to the crew,” Nick explained.

“What do you mean, auction them off? I thought you'd take whatever you want and then...the rest of the crew can fight over whatever's left? Something like that?” Louis asked.

Nick laughed. “Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't really fancy getting ripped apart by my crew. No, we do auctions. First, everyone who actually took part in a raid gets a fair share of it, and the rest is in that pile over there. Whoever pays the most for an item, gets it.”

Louis was now watching him intently and Nick gave him a wide smile for which he got a frown in return and Louis looked back at Liam and Niall. They were now standing at the small railing, looking down on the crew members who were waiting for the auction to begin.

“What money do they pay with?” Zayn asked.

“With the money from the raids?” It was obvious to Nick. “Whatever we don't want, we sell to merchants. Sometimes we directly manage to steal some gold. The money gets distributed evenly amongst the crew.”

Niall was now holding up the first item. It was seemingly brand new, brown leather trousers. Almost immediately a few hands shot up. Nick took a look at himself. Normally, he was right at the front when it came to bidding but this time he decided he had enough clothes for now. Mainly because he would have to leave where he was right now in order to bid and he didn't feel like doing that.

“After you got the biggest part of it, obviously,” Louis said confidently.

“I will say it again: I don't fancy being ripped apart by the crew. We all get the same amount of money. This isn't the navy."

“What's that supposed to mean?” Zayn asked and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He wasn't wearing a shirt because the sun was beating down on them again. Nick wondered if Louis was warm, too, and if he would possibly take off his shi- he stopped his train of thought and took a step forwards so he could look at both of them and talk to them properly.

“It means that we have a fair system of rules. It's called the code of agreement and every crew member has to sign it before he can join us. For example, we have elections for who becomes captain-”

“As if! My father told me the most bloody pirate becomes captain after he killed the former captain. Although,” Louis hesitated, “you don't look like you could win a fight against anyone.”

“I won against you,” Nick replied and bit down on his lower lip to stop himself from grinning, when Louis gave him a dark look. “Anyway, no. That's not true. We vote for the captain. Liam had the job before me, but he didn't want it anymore, so we set up elections and I won. We mostly make decisions together.”

“What do they need you for, then?”

“When we attack someone or in other extreme situations like the storm I have full authority.” Nick shrugged. “Sometimes you need someone to take responsibility.”

Louis and Zayn were silent for a while, before Louis said: “And what's the difference to the navy, then? They don't vote for their captains, we decide on them, but that's it.” Louis raised his chin up as if to seem taller, although he was still sitting on the ship's side which made him about Nick's height. It seemed as if he was daring Nick to disagree with him. It wasn't until then that Nick remembered that the navy was in fact the royal navy and that maybe Louis as the crown prince was partly responsible for it.

“More than half the crew were originally part of the navy. They come here, going on the account, because they can't stand being on their ships anymore. They don't understand or agree with the captain earning way more money than them, despite doing the least amount of work. They get less and worse food and have to sleep on the floor sometimes. And they're punished or even abused whenever the captain feels like it, really.”

Louis wasn't looking at him during the silence that followed. Zayn was staring at the side of Louis' head.

“I mean,” Nick continued awkwardly, painfully aware of how Louis could have taken his words as a personal insult. “It's obvious you've never been on a ship before. It's not your fault things are like...well, like they are.” Nick used to be better with words.

Louis jumped to the floor and left without another word. Nick watched him go until he couldn't see him anymore, then he turned back to Zayn who shrugged.

“Can't say I disagree with you. I was with the navy for a while before Louis hired me.”

Zayn leaned back, closed his eyes, and enjoyed the sun on his face.

“This is the most laid back ship I've ever been on. And here I'm a hostage and not even a crew member.”

Feeling awkward for reasons he didn't know, Nick only gave an unsure smile, even though Zayn couldn't see him.

~

Only a few hours later, Nick was sitting on his hammock. He was about to lie down and go to sleep, when Louis found him. He walked around between the many hammocks, some of them claimed, some of them not, seemingly aimlessly until he spotted Nick and stopped in front of him.

“Slaves!” he exclaimed and pointed an accusing finger at Nick.

Nick blinked. He was tired and confused. “What?”

Louis crossed his arms and went up on his toes, probably unconsciously to seem a little taller and more sure of himself. Nick gave it a few seconds, then he gave up and let himself be endeared by that.

“Pirates sell slaves. They kidnap people and then sell them to America or somewhere else! That's true, my father told me.”

Giving a heavy sigh, Nick stood back up again.

“What are you doing?” Louis asked.

“Leaving the room? There are people here who're trying to sleep, duck,” Nick replied and lead Louis back out of the room, Niall's shout of “damn right, now shut the fuck up!” following them.

Not until they left the sleeping quarters did Nick speak up again. “You're father's not wrong this time. Some pirates do that. We don't,” he explained. “Not anymore,” he added a little more quietly.

Louis stopped walking. “What does that mean? So you used to do it?”

“I'm not sure, but I think Niall and Harry were originally kidnapped and were supposed to be sold as slaves?”

Louis looked angry now and Nick held up his hands in a placating gesture.

“It was before my time! I had only been on the ship for a few weeks and back then Simon was still the captain. He's left this life behind now. They were already on the ship when I joined the crew. But they got along with all of us great and somehow no one ever mentioned selling them ever again.” Nick shrugged. “I think Captain Simon asked them if they wanted off the ship at some point, but they liked the freedom and the crew and wanted to become pirates, too.”

Of course the only thing that Louis noticed was: “You kidnapped a fourteen year old! Earlier you said Niall had been here since he was fourteen!”

“Well. Yeah. We are pirates. I mean, technically, I didn't do anything because I wasn't even on the ship back then, but yeah. Sometimes pirates do things like that.” Nick leaned his head against the wall, feeling tired. “But I had nothing to do with it. Since then this ship has never sold slaves or dealt with them in any way.”

Louis scoffed but seemed a little appeased. “Why should I believe you? Maybe you're even planning to sell Zayn and I as slaves somewhere,” he said anyway.

“What would I achieve with that?” Nick pointed out. He would make way more money using Louis' status as a royal and pressing the royal family for money.

“You're truly the most useless pirate that has ever lived,” Louis said, shaking his head.

“I did manage to kidnap the crown prince,” Nick reminded him once again.

“That was just luck. You said yourself you didn't even know I was on board of that ship.” They started walking again towards the captain's cabin where Zayn and Louis still slept, although the door wasn't locked anymore. Nick felt a little less tired now.

“Doesn't that make it even better? I didn't even have to prepare myself for it, I could just swing it.” Louis' eyebrows rose in disbelief and he really, truly was more attractive than was fair.

“No, that doesn't make it better. It was sheer luck. And you know what they say.” Louis made a small pause, for dramatic effect, Nick guessed. “Fortune favours fools.”

~

The week that followed was strange. Nick was almost sure Louis and him were becoming friends very slowly, although Louis obviously got along much better with Harry, Niall and Liam and had even developed camaraderie with Stan. Louis was a much better card player than Nick was and Stan had decided to play his games against Louis from now on. When Louis was with one of them, he laughed a lot, and even more when he was with Zayn. Zayn himself was much more open, then, too. It was so easy to forget why they were here.

Nick's and Louis' relationship was mostly made up of annoying each other. Nick teased Louis, Louis got angry, said something snappy back, and just like that they were off in their own little world. Often Nick was so distracted that he forgot the people around him. Several times one of the other crew members had to tap on his shoulder to get his attention. Despite the fact they were nearly always fighting, Louis followed Nick around on the ship, looking over his shoulder to see whatever he was working on and to give teasing comments.

Sometimes he frustrated Nick so much that he fantasised about throwing him overboard. Planning their route would be so much easier without Louis pulling at the map or just lying down on top of it. As soon as Louis was not around to give his comments, however, Nick found himself unconsciously looking for him. Usually, Nick kept watching Louis out of the corner of his eye until he came over to insult him or until Nick had thought of an excuse to leave whatever he was doing and walk over to Louis.

Nick wasn't stupid and he also wasn't a fan of lying to himself. He was very aware of the fact that he was ridiculously attracted to Louis. It came as no surprise since Louis was unfairly good-looking. Nick had never met anyone who was so attractive, even while being angry or annoyed or arrogant. And yes, Nick's way of flirting was teasing, although Louis didn't need to know that. Most of his crew did, though, and they were giving Nick knowing looks every now and then. Even Zayn seemed to be amused by Nick's behaviour sometimes, looking at him as if he knew what was going on in his head.

Liam was the only one who seemed honestly worried. He had asked Nick for the letter twice, but he had always managed to deflect the topic. Thinking of who exactly Louis was made him feel uneasy, yet he could never truly forget it. Crown prince and hostage instead of just pretty and loud and brash and entertaining and angry and reckless. It was part of the reason why Nick didn't plan on making any kind of move on him. He was a pirate, but he did have morals. They were in different positions of power and even if Louis agreed to it – as if he would! - it would not be morally correct. It would be exploiting Louis or even abusing him. So Nick stuck to harmless teasing that Louis would never understand as flirting.

~

Stepping out into the sun for the first time that day, Nick blinked. Although it was bright, the wind stopped them from feeling the warmth of the sun above. Nick had spent almost the whole day going over administration issues with Liam. Who would have guessed there was so much organisation involved in being a pirate captain? Nick was unsure why Liam wasn't still their captain. He would definitely vote for him whenever the crew decided to have elections again.

He hadn't seen Louis all day.

He felt weird.

After only a moment, he spotted him, halfway up the mast, Niall directly above him. Nick's heart almost stopped. Only a few seconds later he was standing underneath them.

“What in the world are you doing?” he shouted. Louis seemed to startle because he suddenly stopped climbing and held onto the rope ladder a little more tightly. Niall turned his head to look down on Nick and waved.

“Lou wanted to climb up to the nest!”

“Lou isn't allowed to climb up to the nest,” Nick yelled back. What was Niall thinking? Louis had no experience and if he fell down, then...

“Don't call me Lou!” Louis interjected and it was ridiculous that Nick could make out exactly what type of annoyed he was, despite the distance between them.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Niall and Louis were talking but were too far away for Nick to make out any words. He kept staring at Louis' hands, holding onto the rope ladder, looking for signs of his hands getting tired.

Suddenly, Niall took hold of one of the long ropes tied to the sails and used it to slide down to the deck. Louis stayed where he was.

“What are you doing?” Nick asked as soon as Niall was next to him. Niall grinned back.

“He just wanted to go up, what about it?” he replied, free of any cares as usual.

“He’s never been on a ship before or climbed up the mast, what if he falls?”

Niall shrugged. “He's not an idiot.”

For the sake of time, Nick didn't say anything to that.

“Why isn't he coming down?” he asked instead and looked up to Louis who hadn’t moved from his spot.

“He refuses to. Says that you can come up and take him to the crow's nest, but he's not coming down before he's been there,” Niall reported. 

Nick tried really hard but couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes. “How old is he again?” he asked but was already climbing up the first few steps of the ladder. Niall's laugh seemed unusually mocking. 

“Do you remember when you asked me if I had a death wish?” Nick asked Louis when he reached him. All he could see now was Louis' ass. To be honest, it was a nice ass but Nick would rather see it on the ground where nothing could happen to it. “I would like to ask that question back now.”

Louis only laughed, obviously amused, before he continued to climb up. Nick had no choice but to follow him. His heart seemed to have permanently moved to his throat until both of them were safely in the crow's nest and Nick had firmly closed the hatch underneath them. 

Of course Louis didn't give him a second to take a breath because he was already up and leaning over the nest's side to take a look around. 

Nick reached for Louis' shoulder to hold him, but Louis didn't react. He kept looking out on the ocean. Honestly, there wasn't much to see, just miles and miles of greyish blue water. 

“Wow,” Louis finally said and turned in the other direction, Nick still holding onto his shoulders, turning with him. Although the view didn't change at all, Louis took a few minutes to silently look out on every direction. 

“Now I know why it's called a crow's nest,” Louis said after a while and turned back to look at Nick. His hair was messed up from the wind and his eyes seemed brighter than usual. Nick wasn't sure how to let go of him, so he didn't.

“Yeah?” he replied lamely. 

“Yeah! It's like being a bird.” Louis gave him a cheeky grin. “I'm a majestic eagle and you're a dumb pigeon!”

For once, Nick chose not to react to the insult. Instead, he said: “You do feel quite free up here, I suppose.”

For a while, when Nick had been younger, he used to go up on the crow's nest a lot. After growing up in a very small town, being up and free like that, had felt incredible. After a while, his need for being with other people had won out, though, and he had gladly given the task of keeping lookout to another. It could get lonely up here.

Louis leaned on the wooden railing and closed his eyes.

“If you were a proper pirate, we could never get you down from here, huh, duck?” Nick asked into the blue and almost immediately wished he could take it back. Why did he have to mention that Louis wasn't a pirate, that he didn't belong here?

Louis didn't even open his eyes when he said: “I am a proper pirate. A better pirate than you, anyhow.” 

Nick poked him in the side and smiled. 

“You would never manage to kidnap someone like you.”

“That doesn't even make sense, ” Louis replied and tilted his head a little further back. Nick had the urge to hold onto him again, to make sure he wouldn't fall, although the railing was almost as high as Louis' chest. Instead of doing that he stood next to him and looked out over the water.

“As a kid, I was afraid of heights,” Nick admitted, smiling to himself. How things had changed. 

Louis laughed. “You loser,” he commented. After a long moment of silence, he said: “I've always climbed up everything. Once even on a roof top just to see the view.”

Nick could imagine Louis as a kid all too easily. He couldn't have been anything but a nuisance that everyone adored. 

“Your poor mum, she must've died of worry.”

Louis turned his head to look at Nick and Nick tried hard not to stare back. “Nanny,” he correct hesitatingly. 

It took Nick a moment to understand what Louis meant. It hadn't been his mother who had worried over him, but his nanny. Nick wasn't sure if that was normal for royal families. 

“Wow, a nanny. I had almost forgotten who I'm standing next to. Was she French? I bet she was French.”

Louis kicked Nick against the leg, then shrugged. “Possibly, she could have been French. I admit to nothing.”

“I knew it! I would've liked having a nanny when I was a kid, it's probably nice.”

“Not really ,” Louis replied, shrugging again. 

“Why, did you have to share her with your brother? Didn't she give you all of her attention?”

Louis' answer was silence. He looked tense, all of a sudden, and Nick imagined grabbing the words out of the air and shoving them back into his own mouth. Maybe Louis just didn't want to offer up too much information about himself?

“I have a few older siblings,” Nick said. “I was the youngest one. It was always a bit annoying because they were already adults or almost adults and it was like having more than two parents.”

Louis slowly sat down on the floor with his back to the railing. Nick watched him and then did the same. 

“Who cares about your family?” Louis asked sarcastically. Then he added: “My brother didn't have a nanny at all.”

Nick frowned. “Why not?”

“Our mum took care of him.”

Nick really wanted to ask why. Why had his parents given Louis over to a nanny, but had enough time to take care of his little brother themselves? It didn't seem fair to him. But he wasn't sure where Louis and he were standing. He didn't know how Louis would react if Nick asked something too personal. Nick's throat felt dry.

“Oh God, you look like Puppy when someone's accidentally stepped on her tail,” Louis said suddenly and gave Nick one of those looks that were a cross between annoyed and amused. “Don't hurt yourself with thinking, yeah? I know you don't do that often.”

Nick tried not to grimace, but he wasn't sure of his success. “I was just wondering why....”

As he liked to do, Louis interrupted him. “I'm not very good at being a prince, that's all. My parents didn't like that. Mind you, I'm not as bad at being a prince as you are at being a pirate, but you know.” He shrugged, seeming unsure and a little out of his depth. “I'm just not very good at being quiet and doing what I'm told.”

A small smile found its way to Nick's face. “Yeah, I noticed that.” He took a look around their surroundings, heavy with meaning.

“Oh, don't be a coward. Are you still scared of heights? I told you that I'm a better pirate than you.” Louis gave Nick a shove. When he tried to do it again, Nick grabbed his hand and held them to his chest. After a few minutes of pushing and pulling Louis finally gave in and let Nick hold his hands like that. 

They stayed up there until the sun went down.

~

Nick was tipsy. Well, maybe a little more than tipsy. His whole body felt warm and his limbs felt weirdly heavy. Louis had his face pressed against Nick's neck and was pretending to bite him. Nick tried hard not to giggle. He wasn't very successful.

It had all been Harry's idea. The ship hadn't moved since around midnight due to a calm that brought no wind. They were only drifting in place. For the first few hours they had used the rudders to move the ship themselves, hoping they only had to overcome a short lull. Shortly before sunrise they had decided to give up on it and wait it out. Nick had been relieved because his arms had begun to hurt after a short while. Of course he had helped on the rudders himself. Louis had not believed his eyes, sitting down next to Nick and claiming: “You're just pretending to work. I'll stay here to see if you're really doing it.” After about half an hour Louis had wordlessly started helping him. Although they had spent most of the night fighting about how to use the rudders correctly (as if Nick didn't know infinitely more about that than Louis!), it had been strangely calming to do it together.

They had all slept for a few hours, but then they had begun to grow bored because there had been almost nothing to do on board the ship. Even Paul had been sitting leaning against his rudder, fast asleep in the sun.

So while Nick had been sitting with Liam, Niall, Zayn, Harry, and Louis, Harry had had the brilliant idea to make use of their wine rations now. It hadn't been like they had anything better to do. Nick had only agreed distractedly because Louis had not been wearing a shirt and he had been concentrating very hard on looking anywhere but at Louis. A bit of wine, he had thought, could only improve the situation.

Nick's next mistake had been sharing his ration with Louis. Louis had simply been sitting there, talking to Niall, when Nick had called: “Hey, duck.”

Louis' head had whipped around to him immediately and Nick had needed a few moments to calm his laughter, before he had been able to say: “You reacted to duck!”

Almost instantly, Louis had flushed and tried to kick Nick. Nick had only kept laughing. He hadn't eaten much that day and the wine had gone to his head quickly.

“No, I didn't!”

Then Niall had been laughing as well. Nick had composed himself a little and offered Louis his still half full jug.

“Here, drink,” Nick had said.

Louis had raised his eyebrows. “Did you spit in it?” he had asked distrustfully.

Instead of denying the ridiculous claim, Nick had only shrugged and taken a sip himself. Evidently he knew Louis quite well by now, because he had leaned over and taken the jug for himself, emptying it in one go.

Who would have guessed that drunken Louis was so different from sober Louis? Not Nick. He didn't stop insulting Nick at every chance but he also wouldn't quit touching him. So maybe Nick didn't feel warm because of the wine, after all.

“Heeey,” Nick said, making the word twice as long as necessary. Louis raised his head, looking at him. “Where are the others?”

They were sitting alone against the ship's side, the small group of people who had been drinking with them having disappeared suddenly. Louis leaned forward until his nose was almost touching Nick's. He used his index finger to point at him.

“See! That's why you're a useless pirate. Can't even keep track of your crew.” He scrunched up his nose. “Useless,” he repeated.

Nick caught his hand in his. “You have small hands,” he said without making much sense and looked down on their joined hands. Louis made an undoubtedly deeply offended noise, but didn't pull his hand back. His skin felt warm against Nick's.

“You have a small dick,” Louis replied and raised his chin, as he often did.

Nick snorted. “How would you know that?” He pulled on Louis' hand until he fell forward just a little more.

“I can just tell!” Louis answered self-assured, talking a bit too loudly.

“You're ridiculous.”

“Shouldn't have kidnapped me, huh?” Louis tapped Nick on the chest. Nick's head felt heavy.

“I don't regret it,” he replied without thinking.

A long silence followed. Louis tilted his head to the side and gave Nick a grin. He grinned a lot, mostly teasingly or in a daring way, when it was directed at Nick. But the drunken version of Louis grinned a little differently, in a nicer and more open way. Nick liked this change too much for his own good.

Finally, Louis buried his face against Nick's neck again. He could feel him breathe against his skin.

“I think we should go look for the others,” he said and tried to sit up straight. Louis stopped him.

“I think we should kiss.”

Nick stared at Louis' hair in front of his face and tried to hold onto his sanity. Louis was drunk. He was also their hostage and the crown prince. He was very, very clearly dunk. (But so was Nick.)

“You just said not five minutes ago that I had a small dick,” Nick said without thinking. He wanted to punch himself in the face, but he had his hands crossed on Louis' back and – when had that happened?

Louis made a dismissing sound and tilted his head back to look at Nick. “So what?"

Demonstrating an unbelievable amount of restraint, Nick took his hands off Louis' back and pushed him away as kindly as possible. “Let's go look for the others. Or go to bed.” Nick used the ship's side to pull himself up slowly.

Louis stayed on the floor, pouting, which should have looked ridiculous but didn't.

“I'm the crown prince,” he explained slowly while pulling himself up now to join him. He seemed to have trouble with his sense of balance, but Nick didn't move to help him. “I don't think you’re allowed to refuse to kiss me. There's probably a law about it. We should ask Zayn, he probably knows. You could go to jail!”

Nick laughed. God, Louis was such an idiot and he wanted him so much that his stomach hurt.

“Well, darling. I am a pirate. Breaking the law is kind of in the job description, isn't it?”

Louis waited until they had gotten out of the sun and were under deck. He pulled on Nick's arm until he had no choice but to stop walking.

“You want to kiss me, don't you?” Louis asked bluntly.

It wasn't fair that he was obviously more drunk than Nick. Especially because he had started drinking after him. Nick wanted to be drunk enough to forget responsibilities and consequences, too.

“You're very pretty,” Nick said because his brain-to-mouth filter was obviously off. Louis rolled his eyes.

“You're not very subtle,” Louis informed him, slurring a little, and pointed at Nick again. “Just so you know. I've seen you staring at my ass!”

The worst thing was that Nick couldn't remember having done that, but he didn't doubt it for a second. He leaned against the wall.

“That a crime now, too?” Nick asked and licked his lips nervously.

Louis kissed him. He took a step towards Nick, got up on his toes, and simply kissed him. His lips were warm and his grip on Nick's shoulders almost painful. Nick felt like he had never known desire until this moment. His eyes were still open and he could see Louis' face up close. He looked soft with his eyes closed. Very slowly, almost hesitatingly, Nick let his hands rest on his hips.

That's when his conscience kicked in. He pulled his head back and pushed Louis away a little, but only far enough that they weren't kissing anymore. Louis' expression turned furious.

“You really don't wanna do this, duck. We're drunk,” Nick said quite reasonably.

“Don't tell me what I want, asshole.”

Nick tried not to smile, but failed. It probably wasn't normal to be endeared by an insult.

“Come on, let's get you to bed.”

“I'm not a kid,” Louis replied and freed himself of Nick's grip on him, before stomping down the hallway. Nick stayed where he was for a moment, until Louis turned back around to see whether he was following. He had no other choice but to do it, then.

Louis entered the captain's cabin first.

“So that's not where Zayn is,” he declared and flopped down on the bed. Nick stopped next to it and smiled down on him.

“I wouldn't be surprised if he was sharing a hammock with Niall right now. Possibly with Liam as well. With Harry lying on top of them all,” Nick said, rambled a little.

Louis was pouting again. “Without me? How rude of them.”

“You're like a pile of puppies, I swear.”

Not insulted in the least, Louis shrugged. He sat up a little, pulling Nick down by his shirt collar until he had to crouch down next to the bed, now at eyelevel with him. Louis' mischievous smile was so close again.

“You're not very subtle,” Nick said, mocking Louis' earlier words.

“And you're annoying.”

Nick hadn't become a pirate because he was the most morally correct of all people. Right in front of him was a pretty boy with a witty tongue and a wide smile who wanted to kiss him. He felt like he had been fighting off Louis' advances for an eternity now.

This time, when Louis leaned forward to kiss him again, Nick met him halfway. Louis made a small, surprised noise before following it up with a very pleased sound. Nick bit his lower lip to shut him up. Louis reacted by shoving his tongue into Nick's mouth without warning.

Nick's head was swimming and for the first time he wished he was less drunk, so he could feel everything with clarity. They kissed like they fought – as if it was a competition they both wanted to win.

When Nick finally climbed onto the bed next to Louis, the boy whispered “I win” against his lips.

Nick turned his head a little and pretended to be biting Louis' cheek.

“You're the worst,” he said when Louis lay on his back, pulling Nick on top of him.

“No, I'm pretty sure that's you.”

“What a lame answer. Did I kiss the wit out of you?” Nick asked.

Louis only said “You're not that good of a kisser,” then he pressed his lips to Nick's again.

~

Nick woke up to the taste of regret on his tongue. Well, actually, that wasn't true; he woke up to a small and very warm Louis pressing against him. Nick almost felt too hot but that didn't stop him from pulling him even closer, burying his nose in Louis' soft hair.

That's when the regret came flooding in.

Suddenly remembering why this was a Very Bad Idea, Nick snapped his eyes open. This was Louis, the boy he had kidnapped, the boy who was going to become king one day. He swallowed drily and stared at the old world map hanging over the desk across from the bed.

Silently, Nick counted to ten in his head, before he pushed Louis away as gently as possible, just far enough that he could carefully climb out of the bed without disturbing him. Louis didn't wake up, thankfully, but he grumbled quietly in his sleep and pulled at the thin wooden blanket which had been lying bunched up next to them up until now. Just as Nick reached out to cover Louis with it, Louis buried his whole face in the blanket and went still again.

Nick turned away. Trying to be nearly silent as he left the room had him almost walking on his tiptoes. Slowly, he pulled the door closed behind him.

He should not have kissed Louis. He should have been stronger. Maybe he shouldn't have been drinking at all. It wasn't like he and Louis had gone far. For a small eternity, they had simply kept on kissing until Nick's lips had felt numb and the rest of him had felt wonderful. Finally Louis had interrupted their kiss, pushing him away, only to pull him close again after a second.

“Bedtime, Nicholas,” he had said in his most authoritative voice, but his words had been a bit slurred still. Nick had almost asked whether he should leave when he had turned and pulled Nick's arms around himself.

“Don't you dare try anything while I sleep or I'll kick you in the face,” Louis had said as if he hadn't just enthusiastically touched him just about everywhere. Nick had been hopelessly endeared and still somewhat drunk, so he had only pressed a lingering kiss to the back of Louis' neck.

“Not making any promises, duck. I'm a big bad pirate after all.” Louis had laughed and hit his hands.

After that they had fallen asleep surprisingly quickly.

Despite the fact that the sun had already been brightening the cabin and that it should be late morning according to Nick's inner clock, he felt as exhausted as if he hadn't slept at all. Briefly, he entertained the thought of finding an empty hammock and just sleeping the day away, but he had responsibilities as the captain, responsibilities he had taken too lightly for long enough now. Embarrassingly enough, he had been too preoccupied with Louis to really care about much else.

Nick shouldn't have kissed him and he shouldn't have fallen asleep next to him. He had always been known for never investing too much of himself, his love life limited to the occasional one night stand when they were on shore leave. It had always been like this on purpose because Nick was very aware of how fast people could get under his skin if he let them. Already he was scared to death of the day his crew members would start leaving the pirate life behind them one by one. How would he cope without his best friends?

And now. Now Louis Tomlinson, crown prince of England, had buried deep under Nick's skin, too, without knowing or wanting it. To Louis it probably wasn't anything but a drunken mistake, maybe even one he wouldn't remember. To Nick it was the difference between wondering “what if” and the painful memory of having something he had wanted for a while now, he had wanted so badly, even if only for a very short period of time.

That was the problem. Nick was knee-deep in feelings he had never asked for and soon he would have to let Louis go. He wasn't a hostage anymore, not really, it wouldn't take long until Zayn and he would go back to their former life.

Despite the headache, which only intensified in the sun, Nick went outside, figuring that distraction would probably do him good. At least there were a few clouds, stopping it from getting too hot on deck. Nick put on his best smile and joined Paul to figure out their route. Liam had asked several times already when they would head for harbour again as they were running low on supplies. Nick did not think: 'This is the end.' (Except it was.)

~

Nick didn't see Louis until the following morning. Maybe he was sleeping off a hangover or maybe he remembered everything and hid out of shame and regret. To be fair, Nick did his part, too, always making sure to keep away from the cabin and spending most of his day on top of the sails, doing small repair work. It was only when he came down for a small break after a few hours that he ran into Zayn, not Louis. Zayn gave him a lazy wave, smiling at Nick. If he could have, Nick would have taken him by the shoulders, shaking him until he told him where Louis was, what he was doing, what he had said to him. Instead Nick only smiled back and hurried away. He had never claimed to not be a coward.

Later, when Nick couldn't find anything wrong with the sails anymore, he sat down on the small wooden step-up near the ship's bow with Niall to work through a pile of damaged ropes instead. After a while of quiet work, Niall suddenly asked: “Hey, where did you and Lou run off to yesterday?” Nick looked up.

“What do you mean?” Nick asked, trying his best to sound unaffected, while he stared down at the rope in his hands. “You were the one who ran off all of a sudden.”

Niall laughed. “Course! We went inside to play a game. Didn't work out because everyone was way too drunk, though. Harry tried to help you up, so you could come with us, but you didn't want to,” Niall said, shrugging. “You said you'd follow us later, but you never did.”

There was no accusation in Niall's voice and he wasn't trying to hint at anything. Somehow that made it worse. Nick put the rope in his hands to the others they decided were beyond repair and dragged a hand through his undoubtedly messy hair.

“Fell asleep,” he replied. “What game did you want to play?” he added quickly in the hopes of distracting Niall. Niall, however, wasn't distracted that easily. He laughed.

“You fell asleep on deck?” he asked in an unbelieving tone.

Nick shook his head. “Nah. In the cabin.”

For a very long moment, Niall simply looked at Nick, who was trying his best to seem unassuming. Finally Niall patted his shoulder and gave him a wide grin, still not saying anything. Then he turned back to his work.

~

The next morning Nick was sitting with Paul on two small stools next to the entrance that led under deck. They had a map folded out over their knees and had not only already localised the nearest harbour, but were also already steering towards it. Right now they were discussing at what time of the day they should enter it, as their highest priority was going unnoticed

“In the middle of the night,” Nick suggested because it made the most sense to him. Only a few people would notice them, right?

Paul shook his head. He leaned forward to point at the small red cross they had marked the harbour with. “It's a big harbour, used by many merchants. We'll take our flag down and arrive in the middle of the day, together with a ton of other ships. Everyone will be too busy to wonder about us.”

That made even more sense. Nick was just about to agree when Louis appeared behind him. He leaned over Nick's shoulder, peering down on the map.

“Where are we going? To the Caribbean at last?” he asked as if nothing had happened.

Nick tried to seem not too shocked, but the way Paul raised his eyebrows at him made it clear he wasn't very successful with that.

Pushing Louis off his shoulder, Nick folded the map and gave it back to Paul. He didn't want Louis to know where they were going, mostly because he was planning on sending Zayn and Louis away so they could finally go home, once they had reached the harbour.

“No, it's too warm and there's too much competition,” Nick said. He turned around on his stool until he could look at Louis, who only grinned as boldly as usual.

“Long time no see,” Nick said. So much for seeming unaffected and cool.

Louis shrugged. 'We kissed,' something inside of Nick's head was yelling. 'Can we do that again?'

“Yeah, I was completely out of it yesterday. Slept the whole day. I can't even remember anything from what we did, all I remember is way too much wine.”

“It wasn't that much, duck. You're a right lightweight,” Nick replied on instinct. Then it hit him. Louis didn't remember anything.

Louis had forgotten all about their kisses. Nick felt incredibly awful for taking advantage of a _hostage_ (even though Louis wasn't really one, not anymore, at least) like that. He felt even worse about Louis having forgotten about it. Had he remembered it, he could have at least yelled at Nick for it or told him it was a big mistake. Now Nick was the only one who remembered, the only one feeling guilty and out of his depth.

Maybe it was better for Louis this way.

Without a single worry, Louis leaned over Nick again and nodded hello at Paul. “Hey Paul, who's at the rudder? Can I steer?” he asked.

Paul had a huge soft spot for Louis, just like every other crew member, so he only sent a short questioning look to Nick before nodding his agreement. “Come on, then.”

Silently and almost unable to move, Nick stayed where he was and watched Paul and Louis climb the stairs to the rudder.

Halfway up, Louis stopped and turned around to Nick, raising his chin in challenge.

“What's up, old man? You need an extra invitation?”

“I know how to steer,” Nick answered, but got up anyway to follow them. What other choice did he have?

“I know, but I want you to see that I can do it better than you, just like everything else,” Louis said when Nick arrived at his side.

~

Nick waited until Louis had gone to the storage rooms to get something to eat with Harry and Niall before he approached Liam.

“We'll arrive at an English harbour the day after tomorrow. I want to let Zayn and Louis go. Do I have to ask the counsel first?” Nick was talking in short, clipped sentence as if that would somehow make saying it less painful. He didn't want Louis to leave – and he liked Zayn quite a bit as well, by now – but he could no longer keep them hostage. They weren't hostages to anyone anymore.

Liam looked shocked. Slowly he let go of a small piece of sail that he had been holding for whatever reason and took a step away from the mast.

“Grimmy, what do you mean?” he asked.

“What I said.”

Liam didn't seem to be able to stop staring at him. “Did they say they want to leave?” he asked.

Nick crossed his arms in front of his chest. “We kidnapped them. Of course they want to. They want to go home.”

“Yesterday Zayn said to me he wanted to draw a new flag for us because he doesn't like ours,” Liam replied. “And not half an hour ago Louis made Harry explain how a compass works to him as well as asking Niall to teach him about the weather and wind directions tomorrow.”

Nick bit down on his tongue. He hadn't known that Zayn and Louis were acting like that, as if things were permanent. Not even Nick knew how to read the weather. It had never been terribly important to him.

“That's just talk. He's the crown prince, Liam. He has to go back. So, do I have to ask the counsel or not?”

Liam dragged a hand through his short hair. “To be honest, I was thinking it’d be like it was with Niall and Harry. They'd stay here until barely anyone could remember how they came here in the first place.”

“He's the crown prince,” Nick repeated. “We kidnapped him. Both of them.”

Liam nodded slowly. “Did Louis tell you that, then? That we should release them?”

No, Louis hadn't said anything like that in a while. Nick didn't reply.

“I don't think you have to ask the counsel,” Liam finally answered. “I think Louis and Zayn should decide for themselves. If they want to leave, they can.”

Nick nodded, even though he had no intentions of asking them for their opinion. He couldn't rip him from his old life, two people really, just because he had feelings for one of them. Not even Nick was that selfish.

“Did you ever even write the letter?” Liam asked.

It took a moment for Nick to understand what he meant. The letter pressing for a ransom in exchange for the crown prince's and his bodyguard's life. He shook his head because he had forgotten all about the letter. Nick was an idiot.

“Did you and Louis have a fight?” Liam asked hesitatingly.

Nick frowned. “We fight all the time. He can't stand me.” Louis couldn't remember the short moment when he had actually liked Nick. Liked him enough to have kissed him.

“I meant, a _real_ fight.”

They stared silently at each other. Nick was confused about what Liam meant. Finally, they were interrupted.

“Lee-yum, come here, we brought you food!” Louis was yelling and waving Liam over.

Liam gave Nick a long look. “Just ask them what they want, yeah? Especially Louis. Or do you want me to do it?” he offered, polite as always.

Quickly, Nick shook his head. “No, I'll do it later. Go eat.”

He watched Liam walk over to the others. Louis was making faces in Nick's direction and normally he would have understood it as a request for him to come over, too. This time, however, he turned away and walked away slowly in the other direction. Puppy came running, sniffing at his hands, and barking quietly. Nick only gave his dog a tired smile.

~

Zayn stopped Nick when he wanted to walk into the sleeping quarters.

“Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked.

Nick startled because between his head full of thoughts and the half-darkness of the hallway he hadn't seen Zayn standing next to the door. Nick simply nodded and followed Zayn further into the hallway so they wouldn't be overheard so easily.

“We're going towards a harbour?” Zayn asked in what was half a question, half a statement.

Again, Nick nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

“And you want to kick us off the ship,” Zayn continued.

Nick took a deep breath, crossed his arms, and stood up a little straighter. “Kick you off ship? You're not crew members who broke the rules. We kidnapped you. And now I'm releasing you,” he explained as calmly as possible. If Zayn knew, probably from Liam, Louis was bound to know, too. Where was he?

“Without asking us.”

“Why would I ask you? You're hostages, why would you not want to leave?”

Zayn snorted. “We're not hostages anymore, Grimmy. You yourself let us out of the cabin and treated us like equals.”

“A decision I'm starting to regret,” Nick said.

In answer, Zayn only smiled and shrugged.

“Listen, you're not ordinary hostages, otherwise I would...” Nick trailed off. He would act differently. Most probably, he would have asked both of them to become crew members by now. “Louis is the crown prince and he has to go home, he can't stay here.” Not that he would want to stay.

“You can't decide that for him,” Zayn said.

“He'll become king, Zayn! I can't rob the whole country of its future, of its king. I might be selfish and I might not have chosen the most honest of paths in life, but that doesn't mean I'm entirely without morals.”

Zayn leaned against the wall and stared at Nick for a long while. Confronted with silence, Nick slumped down a little, the tension leaving his body. He didn't want to be doing this; he was only trying to do the right thing. There was no way he could be this selfish.

“Louis will never become king.” Nick startled. Again.

“What?”

“Louis will never become king,” Zayn repeated, louder and more clearly.

“What's that supposed to mean? Of course he will. He's his father's oldest child.”

Nick didn't knew much about nobles or the royal family, but this at least he was sure of. That's how the monarchy worked.

“Doesn't matter, he won't become the king.”

“Why not?”

It seemed like Zayn didn't want to answer that question, though. He shrugged and pushed his hands into his pockets.

After a moment, Nick asked: “Did Liam tell you? About the harbour?”

Zayn nodded and answered Nick's next question before he had even asked it. “But he told only me. He wants to give you time to talk to Louis yourself.”

That was good. Louis was still in the dark about everything. Nick intended on leaving him that way until he had no other choice. It wasn't entirely fair, but he would wait until the last possible minute to tell him that he was releasing them.

“So use it and do talk to him,” Zayn said. “And think about it. Maybe you can do your counsel thing?”

Shrugging, Zayn pushed himself off the wall. He was already a few steps away when he said: “I would really like to be part of your crew. And I think Louis feels the same way."

~

Nick didn't change his mind. It was late morning when Niall yelled “Land ahoy” from the crow's nest. They had already switched their own flag for an unremarkable light blue one that was supposed to identify them as merchants. It wouldn't be long now until they reached the harbour. Nick hadn't eaten anything all morning because he felt ill.

He gave the necessary instructions to his crew, then stopped Zayn by his shoulder when he walked by.

“Where's Louis?” he asked. He had to tell him now.

Zayn gave him an empty look. He knew, of course, that Nick hadn't told Louis anything yet. Truth be told, Nick was rather surprised that he as well as Liam hadn't said anything to Louis themselves. He had been kind of expecting them to tell Louis or someone else of his plan, but they hadn't.

“He's asleep,” Zayn said and pulled away from Nick's grip to keep walking.

Nick shouted towards the nearest crew members not to forget to put on their shore leave outfits. Their clothes more than clearly identified them as pirates, but they all had simpler clothes for when they were on shore leave.

With his heart beating wildly in his chest, Nick made his way to the cabin. He found Louis fast asleep. He slept as if he was trying to take up more space than he really needed, stretched out all over the bed. For a moment Nick let himself imagine how terribly annoying it would be to have to sleep next to him (although he had already done that, it was just that Louis didn't remember). Then he kneeled down next to the bed.

He wasn't sure how to wake Louis up and what to say to him. Would he be angry? Relieved? Would he care at all? Nick didn't want to see him go. It was selfish, but he wished nothing more than that Louis was any other hostage. Even if kissing stayed a one time occurrence, Nick would rather have him around than not. He wanted to watch him learn everything about their life and he wanted to hear him say that he was a better pirate than Nick five times a day.

Once again Nick listed the reasons for Louis having to leave: He was the crown prince, meant for a bigger life than the illegal one of pirates. He could end up hanging for being a pirate! No, Louis was meant to become king, have the whole country look up to him. Nick had never planned on keeping him on the ship in the long run. Of course he had also planned on only giving him back after getting a rather big sum of money. Now everything had changed. He had to let Louis go, had to send him away, before his own feelings could run deeper and finally convince him to be selfish enough to keep him. Louis himself and who he was were more important than Nick, or the ship, or the crew.

He could only hope that Louis would understand, even though he would not mention his feelings for him.

Carefully, Nick began stroking through Louis' hair slowly. If things weren't over soon anyway, Nick never would have woken him up like this. After a short while, Louis began to stir. He squeezed his eyes even more closed as if trying to stop himself from waking up.

Nick stilled his hand. “Louis?” he whispered.

A small smile appeared on Louis' face. Nick's heart did not skip a beat, no, it absolutely did not. Louis opened his eyes to look at him.

“You creeper,” he said.

Nick had to use more force of will than he had expected to take his hands off Louis' hair. He stayed kneeled down next to him.

“That's what you get for sleeping until midday.”

In answer, Louis only pulled the blanket tighter around himself and looked at him.

“We're landing at the harbour soon,” Nick said finally, trying to sound as neutral as possible.

Louis yawned. “Good, you'll get some fresh food, yeah? Because there's not much left and Niall nearly started a fistfight with me yesterday. I think it was over...” He frowned for a moment. “A piece of old bread.”

Nick nodded. He felt faint and laid down a hand on the bed to keep his balance.

“Yeah, we'll sell some of the booty and get new supplies, so we can get sailing again.”

Come on, Nick, tell him. Don't be a coward.

“You and Zayn will leave the ship.”

Louis didn't understand. He stretched out a little and turned around on his side to get a better look at Nick.

“Why? Someone could recognise me.”

Nick stared back silently. He had no words. He just didn't know how to say it.

Louis seemed to grow anxious. “Nick?” he asked and sat up, the blanket slipping from his shoulders. He wasn't wearing a shirt. Life was really unfair.

“I want you to find someone who'll bring you back to London. Back home.”

“What?!”

Louis' eyes were wide open as he stared at Nick, but right now he was only surprised, not angry yet.

“You have to leave,” Nick said. He didn't want to talk about it. All he wanted was for Louis to understand so Nick could leave and hide until all of this was over. “I'm releasing you.”

“You're releasing- You asshole! You're kicking us off the ship!” There the anger was. Quickly, Louis jumped out of bed until he was standing in front of Nick, pointing an accusing finger at him.

“Why are you kicking us off? We didn't do anything, didn't break any rules! I even made Harry show me that weird code of yours so we wouldn't break it accidentally! We haven't done anything wrong!”

Nick stood up slowly, making use of the few seconds to get himself together. Louis had just confirmed what Liam had already told him; that he was putting effort into learning about the pirate life. It hurt, but Nick had to ignore it. This was for Louis' own benefit.

“I'm not kicking you off. We kidnapped you, remember? And now I'm mercifully releasing you without even having gotten a ransom.”

Louis pushed him so hard that he stumbled back a few steps.

“You wanker! You goddamn asshole!”

Nick stayed silent.

“What's this about, so suddenly? Is it because I kissed you? Are you this disgusted? Are you so fucking frightened of me making a move on you?” Louis asked, furious. “Don't worry, I don't give a rat's ass about you, you don't have to overreact!”

Nick couldn't believe it. His mouth was probably hanging open in shock. “You remember that?! Why did you pretend like you had forgotten?” he asked almost just as angrily. Louis had made him believe that Nick was the only who remembered!

But still, if Louis remembered, then he must remember, too, how enthusiastically Nick had kissed him back. How could he believe Nick was disgusted by him? God.

“Doesn't matter. I'm not leaving. And neither is Zayn,” Louis said, changing the topic back quite abruptly, and crossing his arms.

So Nick tried honesty. “It's not about something that you or Zayn did, Louis. You can't stay here. You're the crown prince and you'll become king and I can't keep you from that just because you get along with my crew, just because I-” He stopped himself, clearing his throat. “I might not be a good person but even I know you belong somewhere else.”

After a moment, he added: “Not even mentioning how being a pirate is punishable by death. I can't let that happen to you.” Even more quietly, he said: “It has nothing to do with the kiss.”

Louis took a step back. “You don't get to decide that. Zayn and I are old enough, we can make decisions for ourselves. Even if it's a dangerous decision.”

Nick shook his hand, slowly growing desperate. “The captain decides who becomes a crew member. And you're not becoming members. And pirates don't take passengers with them.”

“I can't believe you. I really can't bloody believe you,” Louis said, his eyes filled with barely held back fury. “First you kidnap me from my goddamn ship to keep me hostage here, then you turn around and start acting as if you care about me!” Louis rubbed at one of his eyes with the palm of his hand. “You show me this life full of freedom and autonomy and a family you can choose for yourself! And now you want to send me away? Showed me what I could have, but can't? Is this some kind of sick joke? Because it's not very funny, Nick.”

Nick had never known what heartbreak felt like, but he guessed this way pretty close. He tried to say something but Louis shook his head.

“It's not even about you. I don't care about you at all! I'm not leaving Harry, Niall, Liam, and everyone else. They're my friends!”

Louis looked scared all of a sudden. Nick's chest hurt.

“Did they know about this? Did they want us to -”

“No,” Nick hurried to say. Maybe he should have lied, should have told Louis that no one wanted him here, but he simply couldn't do that to him. How could anyone not want Louis around, anyway?

“Only Liam and Zayn know. They both tried to convince me not to do it.”

“Of course they did! It's bullshit, that's what it is! What's gotten into you?"

What was Nick supposed to say? “Trying to be reasonable, Lou.”

“Don't call me that.”

“Okay, trying to be reasonable, _Louis_. I can't keep you-”

Nick used a hand to rub his eyes, not sure what to say anymore. He dropped his hands back to his sides and sighed, defeated. “I can't keep you here just because I like you, because the others like you, because I...” He bit down on his lower lip, remembering how he had done the same thing to Louis.

“Fuck, you can't tell me you don't realise how gone I am for you, you annoying little brat.”

Silence followed. Nick kept his eyes resolutely on the floor because he didn't want to see the look on Louis' face. He could feel his own heart beating wildly. He should not have let that slip. What was it about Louis that made Nick lose control over and over again? The only good thing was that the words might make Louis want to leave the ship himself.

After what felt like an eternity, he heard Louis giggle. Giggle?

“You really are useless.” Hesitatingly, Nick looked up at Louis, who was grinning at him so widely that it almost looked painful. Nick blinked, confused.

“You made me believe you regretted the kiss! You just left me in bed without saying a word, you ass!” Louis said. Nick wasn't following anymore. One second Louis was furious and now he was insulting him while beaming like the fucking sun.

“I was humiliated,” Louis continued. “That's why I pretended not to remember anything.”

He walked towards Nick and before he could react in any way, Louis was hugging him tightly. Nick didn't know what to do, except to hold on and pull him even closer. Louis still wasn't wearing a shirt and he felt warm in Nick's arms.

“I'm pretty sure I can't even stand you. You're awful and you make dumb jokes and you give me stupid nicknames and you're seriously, seriously useless...”

Nick laughed, taken aback by all the insults.

“But you're also kind of an alright kisser and I can't stop thinking about you. Really thought I had better taste.”

Just as Nick went to push his face into Louis' hair, Louis pulled away slightly and got up on his toes.

“You have to go up on your tippy-toes to kiss me,” Nick said without thinking.

Louis rolled his eyes. “Shut up.”

Their lips were only inches apart when Nick realised that Louis probably thought this would change things. Maybe he even thought he could stay on the ship, but his safety was still more important than Nick's feelings. The country that would need a king one day was more important. Nick shook his head.

“No,” he said, even though he wanted to shout yes a hundred times instead. “You still have to go.”

The smile fell off Louis' face in an instant.

“No,” he said. They stared at each other. Their faces were so close together that Nick could feel his breath hitting his lips and chin.

“Are you serious?” Louis asked quietly.

“You're not just anyone.”

“Yeah, I know, I'm the fucking crown prince. Do you think I don't know that?”

Louis pulled away completely, took a step back, and crossed his arms in front of his chest. It looked less defensive and more like he was trying to hold himself together.

“Does that make me less of a person? Does that mean I can't decide for myself what I want to do?”

Nick wanted to say no, pull him into his arms again, and keep him there. The fact was, however, that is was true. It had been determined how Louis' life was going to go the day he was born.

Who was Nick to go against that?

“Are you serious? You're telling me you have feelings for me, only to then kick me off the ship?” Louis asked when Nick still hadn't answered his questions.

“I didn't want to tell you that, it just slipped out!”

“Yeah, that makes it better, thank you, Nick.”

Louis was bristling with anger again by now. He stomped back over to the bed and sat down, pulling his legs up and putting his arms around them.

“I'm staying here, no matter what you say,” he declared determinedly without looking at Nick. He was resolutely staring at his knees.

Nick bent over a little to put a hand on his arm.

“Don't touch me.”

A few seconds ago he had wanted Nick to kiss him. Nick didn't know where up and down was anymore. It was his own fault.

“I'm sorry,” Nick said. He hated having to apologise, but he truly was sorry. If only everything was different. “But even if the others want you to stay, they'll kick you off if I tell them to. They have to stick to the code.”

Louis buried his face between his arms.

“Then you can find someone who'll take you home.”

Without looking up, Louis grabbed the pillow and threw it in Nick's general direction.

“Fuck off!” His voice was muffled a bit, but Nick could still understand him loud and clear. He waited a few seconds, just in case Louis had something else to say, but he stayed silent.

Nick left the cabin.

~

For shore leave, Nick put on the most inconspicuous clothes he owned. They were simple and brown and he disliked them greatly. Afterwards, he sat down in a corner of the sleeping quarters, leaned his head against the wall, and closed his eyes.

He didn't want to think.

Louis had said he couldn't stop thinking of him. Fuck, fuck. Was Nick really doing the right thing? How could he still send Louis away? All he wanted was to keep him by his side, hiding him from the world until barely anyone remembered that England used to have two princes instead of one.

He couldn't change the plan just because of his feelings, though. Even if Louis seemed to return them. Nick felt awful about having to make Louis and Zayn leave, but he didn't know what else to do. He simply wasn't important enough to be above what would be good for the whole country, even if his profession actually disrespected royalty in all its forms. If Nick were to act any differently than he was planning to, he would probably regret it for a long while, always asking himself if he had made the right choice.

Niall found him. He crouched down in front of him and smiled. Did he know? Probably not, otherwise he would be angry at Nick, too. He had grown fond of Louis and Zayn as well.

“Everything alright, Grimmy?” he asked and playfully hit Nick's knee. “We're about to land, you're coming with us on shore leave, right?"

Nick nodded and got up. Without losing another word, he followed Niall back outside. His crew was already busy with landing. He felt oddly proud of them for being able to handle it on their own.

Liam and Zayn were standing off to the side, out of the working men's way, talking quietly. Puppy was next to them and let herself be stroked by Zayn every now and again.

Harry hurried towards Nick and Niall, grinning brightly. Obviously he wasn't suspecting anything either. Nick only now realised that most of his crew would probably end up angry at him. Maybe they would even vote someone else for captain now. It wasn't enough for Nick to regret his decision.

Harry was dressed in simpler clothes as well. He loved “dressing up” for shore leave.

“I haven't been on solid ground forever, I can't wait!” Laughing, he put one arm around Nick's shoulders and the other one around Niall's.

Louis stepped out on the deck. His posture was tense as he slowly walked towards the three of them. Nick could not stop staring at him.

“Don't look at me like that,” Louis hissed at him. “In fact, don't look at me at all.”

Nick didn't reply, but he didn't look away either. Harry dropped his arms to his sides.

“You alright, Lou?” he asked. Louis shook his head and then pointed at Nick impatiently.

“Go away. At least let me say goodbye in piece.”

“Say goodbye?” Harry and Niall asked simultaneously.

Louis didn't answer, but instead pulled both of them over to Liam and Zayn. They formed a circle and began discussing too quietly for Nick to hear.

Nick turned away. He really hoped he wouldn't have to go through a discussion with his crew. He didn't want to go over it again, but also really didn't want to have to force anyone.

To distract himself Nick helped Stan and Ed with tying the ship to the rack. No one in the heavily busy harbour had taken notice or questioned their landing yet. Paul's idea had been so much better than Nick's suggestion.

Finally, the ship was tied down securely and they were ready for their shore leave. Nick watched Louis and Zayn hug their friends tightly, before all five of them walked over to him, and stepped off the ship.

“We can go,” Louis said stiffly. He looked everywhere just to avoid looking at Nick. With his old, torn clothes that he had probably gotten from Niall (he had been walking around in Niall's clothes for weeks now), he looked just like any of the crew members. His hair had gotten longer since Nick met him and he looked less groomed.

Nick tried to drink it all in, before turning to look at the small part of his crew. Niall, Harry, and Liam looked angry now, although less angry than Louis. At the same time they all seemed oddly determined, probably to get it over and done with. Nick sighed.

“Okay,” he said. “A few people have already left to get supplies. We'll see you off.”

He didn't want to do this, he really didn't want to.

“We'll make it easy for us.” He did his best to display as little emotion as possible. Louis was staring over his shoulder at a few dock workers. “We'll go into the nearest pub and find out where to best see you off. Maybe they have a major or an earl. We'll take you there.”

And then it would be over.

The five people standing in front of him kept silent.

“Okay?” Nick asked.

“No," they all answered simultaneously. Nick bit down on his tongue so he wouldn't start screaming. Instead he mumbled “alright” to himself and started walking towards the big pub every harbour had, which could be seen from almost anywhere.

The five boys followed him, leaving a bit of distance between them and Nick, whispering to each other. Nick really wanted to know what they were talking about, but he didn't even try to listen in. His head was somewhere else and he had to concentrate on the task ahead.

He pushed the door to the pub open, stepping into a room filled with smoke, foul air, and darkness.

“It's probably best to ask the innkeeper.” Everyone else would probably not be locals and therefore not know what they wanted to know.

Without looking back at the others, Nick strolled over to the bar.

“Hello, good lady. Six beers for me and my friends,” he ordered. He could hear Louis whisper “God, I hate you so much” next to him. Even knowing that it wasn't the truth it hurt more than expected and Nick quickly sat down on one of the bar stools. After a moment the others copied him.

The elderly woman with the long, tousled, grey hair started filling glasses with the dark yellow beer from the barrel.

“What brings you here, boys?” she asked as she handed Niall and Zayn two beers.

“Business,” Liam replied. He was sitting next to Nick and looked pale.

The innkeeper laughed. “Just like everyone else, then”, she said, now handing Harry his beer. He immediately took a big gulp of it.

Nick didn't have the patience to wait long, although making a bit of small talk was probably more intelligent. It would be less suspicious, but he simply couldn't. Louis would leave soon. God.

“Almost like everyone else. We're here for special business, darling. Important stuff, but top secret,” Nick explained.

He could feel Louis roll his eyes, even though they weren't looking at each other.

“I'm sure you know where we can find someone who is responsible for important business? An earl or maybe a sovereign? We'll also make do with the major, if necessary.”

By now Liam and Louis had been served, too. Nick was the last to get his beer together with a pair of raised eyebrows.

“Sure I know that, boy.”

Louis and Niall started laughing. Nick ignored them.

“Earl Carmicheal is the one to go to. His estate is on the outskirts of town, but it's not far from here. It's best if you follow the main road and then ask someone for the way again.”

Nick took a sip of his beer. It didn't taste like anything. One after another, the innkeeper gave them inquiring looks.

“Although you lot don't look like you've got business with the earl.”

Maybe they had dressed too simply and tried too hard to be inconspicuous.

“Won't be easy to get an audience with him. Ever since the thing with the prince and the king's reaction to it he's pissed off all the time.”

Nick forgot how to breathe for a moment. She was talking about Louis. Carefully and slowly he looked at Louis, then back to the innkeeper, who gave them an openly skeptical look now.

Zayn was the first to find words. “What thing with the prince?” he asked so calmly that Nick felt the urge to applaud.

The innkeeper laughed. “Where have you been, hiding under a rock?”

“At sea,” Liam replied unusually quickly.

She shrugged and leaned forward a little. Nick took another sip. He didn't want to listen to his. He knew what had happened with the prince because he himself had kidnapped him.

“Super juicy stuff, I'm telling you. See, it's about the older one, Prince Louis. He was on his way to some states visit or other. Except, he never arrived there.”

Nick felt ill and he gulped half of his glass down. He didn't dare look to his left or right to where the others were sitting.

“Everyone thought, you know, pirates got him, trying to make a bit of money, yeah? Although it's kinda unusual to have pirates so close to England, but you never know.”

She really seemed to enjoy sharing gossip with them. Nick supposed it was part of her job working at a pub situated near a harbour.

“A week later, the king sends out a letter to all the earls and the like, telling them that Prince Louis is a traitor!”

Louis started coughing, possibly choking on his beer. Nick couldn't for the life of him remember how breathing worked.

“A traitor?” Harry asked as Zayn gently patted Louis on the back. Louis didn't look at Nick, but stared at the innkeeper as if hypnotised.

“Yeah, the damn kid has orchestrated some pirates to raid the ship he was on and then take him with them! Word on the street is he's building an armada of pirates and other criminals. No one knows why, though.”

The innkeeper shrugged, before adding: “See, and the earl's annoyed because the king made all of those who had their county near the sea send ships out to search for the prince. There's a prize on his head now, but no one's found him yet.”

She leaned back when someone from one of the tables called for her.

“Yeah, yeah, I'm coming,” she called back, before giving them an amused smile. “So if any of you boys ever run into the prince, remember you could make a nice bit of money.” She winked, turning away and tending to her guests.

Nick took a few deep breaths before turning sideways to Louis. At the same time, he pulled a few coins out of his pocket, dropping them on the bar. That would have to be enough for their beers.

“A price on your head!” Niall exclaimed suddenly.

Liam and Zayn shushed him simultaneously.

Nick stared at Louis and Louis stared back. His cheeks were red, his eyes and mouth wide open. What had just happened?

What were they supposed to do? There was a price on Louis' head! To be here, on land, was a danger to his life. They had almost sent him off to an earl who would have handed him over without hesitation. There was no way they could leave him alone here. It was best if they got back to the ship and left the harbour as soon as possible.

“So,” Nick said slowly when he realised what the consequence of all of this was. He laughed awkwardly, not letting himself quite believe it.

“Fancy becoming a crew member?” He looked over Louis' shoulder at Zayn. “You, too?”

Louis slapped him. Hard.

There was silence for a moment, then the innkeeper shouted “no fighting in my pub!” Nick held his cheek. Louis was still staring at him, not angry, but shocked.

Harry started giggling. This was probably what losing one's mind felt like.

“Fuck, yeah,” Louis breathed out. Zayn nodded in agreement.

“Asshole,” Louis added for good measure.

“You can fight later,” Liam said. Harry laughed a little louder. “But we should leave now.”

Nick turned around to Liam who looked just as taken by surprise as the rest of them.

They all stood up and left the pub quickly.

~

When Niall started running next to him, Nick held him back by his arm.

“Don't run. We're trying to seem innocent,” he whispered. Not running, but still walking faster than was strictly normal, they made their way to the ship. Nick pushed Louis on board, then Zayn, before he stepped on board himself.

Paul was closest to him. “We have to leave now,” Nick explained and he must have seemed wild and confused because Paul put a calming hand on his shoulder.

“What happened?” he asked earnestly and looked at the other five as if to check that they were all still there.

Nick shook his head. “We have to go.”

“Almost ten people are on shore leave right now, getting our supplies,” he explained calmly. “You know that, Grimmy. We'll have to wait for them to get back.”

Nick bit the inside of his cheek and shook his head again.

“We can't wait that long. I'll send someone to get them back and then we'll leave immediately.”

Paul nodded. “I'll go get them myself. Then you'll explain what happened.” His tone allowed no room for arguments.

With only a few steps and a small jump, Paul was off the ship and hurrying away. Nick grabbed Louis' shoulder and Zayn's upper arm and pulled them towards the entrance that led under deck.

“You two are staying inside until we're on the open sea again.”

~

They stood in front of the sleeping quarters, silent, and unsure what to do next.

Nick proved his insensitivity once again, when he asked Louis: “Can we talk, then?”

Frowning, Louis looked up from his feet and at Nick. He shook his head slowly.

“I'm gonna...” Without finishing his sentence Louis pulled away from Zayn and walked away. Harry and Niall were quick to follow him, but Zayn stopped them.

“Leave him for a bit, yeah?”

Zayn knew Louis the longest and the best, so they trusted him and watched Louis go. After a moment of sheepish silence, Niall exclaimed that he would go help the returning crew members load any supplies on the ship. Liam agreed and said that he would help him. Harry looked between Zayn and Nick and sighed.

“Weird day, right?” he asked. Nick could only nod.

“But at least you and Lou are still here.” Harry gave Zayn a smile. Then he claimed that he needed a nap and disappeared between the hammocks.

Only Nick and Zayn were left standing in the hallway.

“Is he okay?” Nick asked even though he was sure that Louis wasn't.

Zayn smiled sarcastically. “I don't know how your relationship with your family is, but Louis just found out that his wanted to get rid of him so badly that they used his kidnapping to declare him a traitor and put a price on his head.”

Nick's face must have fallen at his words because Zayn took pity on him and added: “But he'll be okay. He's Lou, you know? Just talk to him yourself. But wait a little, he has to sort it out in his head first.”

~

So Nick waited. He waited while the rest of the crew returned with a few supplies and while they left immediately. Then he discussed with Paul where to turn. There was no way they could stay near England as Louis was in life-threatening danger there. After a short but intense discussion Nick finally gave in and gave the go ahead for the Caribbean. Niall cheered loudly and hugged Harry **.** Nick couldn't stop thinking of Louis wanting to go to the Caribbean, too, and he kept waiting.

He didn't see Louis for three days. Nick didn't know where exactly he was hiding and he grew worried that Louis might have left the ship secretly while they had still been in the harbour. Zayn reassured him, however, that Louis was on board and that he had brought him food and talked to him, albeit only shortly.

So Nick waited some more while he sat down with Harry, Niall, Liam, and Zayn to apologise. All four of them were angry, but Harry and Niall felt especially betrayed because Nick had made such a big decision without even asking them. Nick decided that honesty was the best route and told them about his concerns.

“Additionally,” he finally came to an end, “we're criminals. Louis and Zayn would have become criminals, too, putting them in life-threatening danger.” Nick scratched his chin awkwardly and said more quietly: “I couldn't let that happen.” He didn't want to think about how it had happened anyway. There was no going back now. All he could do was protect them as well as he could.

Niall was the first to forgive him when he laughed.

“God, you're ridiculous.”

“Hey! I had serious and very reasonable concerns that I actually still have,” Nick said.

“Possibly. And you're also completely head over heels. That's just ridiculous. I've never seen you like this! You should've just let them decide for themselves what they wanted, yeah? Kinda not your place to decide who's becoming a pirate and who's not. Also, you couldn't have forced him to become king just because you thought it would be best.”

“And it was really unfair of you to talk to no one but Liam,” Harry added.

Nick nodded. “I really am sorry. I obviously wasn't thinking clearly.”

Harry smiled and pulled Nick into a short hug. “It's okay, Grim. We all make mistakes.”

Nick just kept waiting.

The night following his decision he was still waiting and he couldn't sleep. Slowly he got up and pulled on a pair of trousers to take a walk on the ship. Maybe he could relive someone from their night shift.

When he stepped out on the deck, his heart nearly stopped. It wasn't the first time he had suddenly seen Louis climb up the mast, but this time it was even more surprising. Louis looked short and small, hanging several metres over the ground.

Nick knew that Stan had the night shift on the crow's nest. Maybe Louis wanted to talk to him? That thought diffused quickly when just a moment after Louis had arrived at the nest, he saw Stan starting to climb down. Obviously Louis had told him that he would take over.

Being an official member of the crew now, he was allowed to do that. The day before the counsel had voted unanimously on welcoming Zayn and Louis as new members. Even Puppy had barked in agreement.

After arriving on the ground, Stan spotted him. As soon as Stan was off the ladder, Nick put his foot on it.

He couldn't wait any longer and he really hoped it wasn't too early.

Stan was amused and grinned brightly. “He wanted to take over my shift,” he informed Nick. “Please don't have sex in the nest.”

Rolling his eyes, Nick left him behind on the ground and started his climb upwards. Louis had to have heard him on the last metres because Nick could see him lean over the railing and look down at him. Nick didn't react and kept climbing.

The hatch was open when Nick finally made it. He climbed through, closed it behind himself, and then risked taking a look at Louis.

“Hello, duck.”

He had really missed Louis' annoyed eye roll. “Hello, Nick.”

“You alright?” Nick asked. He was incredibly bad at talking about feelings and it didn't help that Louis didn't seem like the type to do it voluntary, either.

Louis didn't answer, so Nick reached for his hand. He was immensely relieved to find that Louis let him hold it.

“I never would have become king anyway,” he finally said quietly and looked at Nick. Nick swallowed drily.

“What does that mean? Zayn said something similar.”

“Oh, you talked to Zayn about me?” Louis asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Duck, ever since you've arrived on this ship, I haven't talked about anything else to anyone.” Louis knew how we felt anyway, so it wasn't like he had much to lose by being honest.

Louis turned his head to the side and looked away, so Nick wouldn't see him smile. He saw it anyway. “You're an idiot.”

“It means exactly what I said,” he continued. “I never would have become king. I told you I wasn't a very good as a prince, even less so, a king. Years ago my parents made me swear to step down from the throne as soon as my dad dies. I was supposed to hand it over to Anthony.”

Louis started playing with Nick's hand. He took it in both of hands and pulled on the fingers, balling it into a fist, and then pulled it back open again. Nick let him.

“I would've spent my life at court, but never as king. God, can you imagine that? I would've been a hostage in the worst way forever.”

Nick dragged his free hand through his hair, sparing a thought to how he probably looked like a tired mess. “Like you were a hostage here?”

“Ironically, that freed me.” Louis gave him an unfamiliarly serious look, almost as if he was trying to thank Nick. Which was just ridiculous. Nick had kidnapped him.

“Well, anyway. It seems like they saw the kidnapping as a chance to..."

He stopped talking. Nick shuffled forward on his knees until he was directly in front of Louis. Gently, he pulled his hand from his grip and pulled him into his arms. Louis gave an annoyed sigh, but pushed closer anyway.

“Stop pitying me. Yeah, my parents wanted to get rid of me. They saw the kidnapping as a chance to do it once and for all. This way they can avoid the whole abdication mess and the small chance of me not going along with their plans.”

Louis buried his face in Nick's neck and Nick didn't know what to do but pull him closer and slowly stroke his back.

Not knowing what to say, he simply said what he was thinking: “For what it's worth, I'm really glad you're here now.”

“You wanted to get rid of me, too,” Louis reminded him.

“Because I'm an idiot,” Nick admitted. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I wanted to protect you.”

Louis laughed so loudly and so close to his ear that it almost hurt. He pulled away to look at Nick.

“I don't need someone to protect me. Especially not someone who is as useless as you.”

Nick really thought he had waited long enough. He put a hand on the back of Louis' head and kissed him, fully expecting to be pushed away.

Instead Louis responded so quickly and intensely to the kiss that Nick's head was spinning. Louis pressed a short kiss to Nick's lip.

“You're still useless.” Another kiss.

“I'm still angry.” Yet another kiss, this time longer and much slower.

Louis was breathing a bit heavily, when he said: “You better think about how you can make it-” Unfortunately, Nick had completely run out of patience and didn't let him finish his sentence. None of them said anything for a long while.

Almost an hour later Nick was sitting with his back to the railing of the crow's nest, Louis between his legs with his back against Nick's chest. He had his chin resting atop Louis' head.

“You wouldn't have gotten rid of me anyway,” Louis said suddenly and laughed quietly.

Nick gently blew into his hair and watched the strands move.

“Why not? Would you and Zayn have stolen a boat and followed us?”

“Don't be an idiot. We had a much more elaborate plan.”

Nick raised his eyebrows and smiled. “A plan? Enlighten me.”

“Well, after you had gotten rid of us, Liam would have distracted you, so Niall and Harry could have smuggled us back on board. Then we would have waited until we were back on open sea, so you couldn't kick us off anymore. Afterwards, we simply would have waited until you had gotten over your weird fit of responsibility,” Louis explained proudly.

“Oh yes, seems like nothing could have gone wrong with that,” Nick said sarcastically but he liked the plan. It was a good plan; reassuring in a way.

Louis turned around in his arms until they were face to face again. He smiled teasingly and kissed him. Then he pulled on Nick's hand and shuffled backwards, making Nick follow him. After a moment, they were sitting in the middle of the crow's nest again.

“What are you doing?” Nick asked, pushing a few of Louis' stray strands of hair away from his face.

“Nothing,” Louis replied innocently and pushed Nick's shoulders until he fell backwards and was lying on his back. Louis leaned over him and tapped him on the nose.

“Remember how I said I could take you down?”

It took Nick a moment until he remembered. It had been in the very beginning, after they had just met.

“I was right,” Louis said smugly.

Nick couldn't help but laugh and put a hand on the back of Louis' neck to pull him down, too.

“For once in your life, shut up, yeah?”

 


End file.
